Career
Natanio shot to national fame as the result of the 1992 Presidential Debates, where host Randy David showed a video presentation of the street vendor"s life circumstances before asking the candidates how they would address poverty, as exemplified and humanized by Natanio"s story. During the segment, his identity was concealed under the pseudonym "Mang Pandoy."
This earned him about Php50 a day. By 1992, however, he had gotten too sick to do even that, and was at a loss over how he would feed his family.
He joked that he would be willing to be shot in exchange for Php 100 000, which would provide for his family"s needs.
Since Ramos had called attention to his plight, Mang Pandoy was presented with a number of new opportunities during the Ramos administration. He was hired as the co-host of "Ang Pandayan ni Mang Pandoy", a weekly television show on the government-owned television network PTV 4 (now NBN 4), where he earned at least Php2,000 per episode.
Later, he was hired as a consultant by the then Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives, Jose de Venecia. These jobs were his last employment.
He would later receive doleouts both from De Venecia and from the Quezon City government but he was unable to make the money grow, and he eventually faded into relative obscurity.
At about 6:30 p.m. August 28, 2008, at age 63, Mang Pandoy finally succumbed to tuberculosis, a symbol of the Filipino poor and, in the words of one news report, "an icon of token relief and unkept promises."
One commentator, expounding on the events that brought Mang Pandoy from poverty to fame and back noted:
Mang Pandoy, whose earthly remains had been logged in an arm stretch of soggy earth, was a prop, period. He was an extra in a political telenovela.
There was no intent to make his life the anchor of a massive and inspired poverty-alleviation program, period.
Alip noted:
"lieutenant takes three to five years to bring a family out of poverty. lieutenant takes another five to eight years to stabilize them because a calamity could come and then everything they"ve worked for could be destroyed. And then you need another five years to move them from microentrepreneurs to full-fledged SMEs.
lieutenant takes a real commitment for change, for sustainable development."
Since his family could not afford a burial for Mang Pandoy the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) eventually gave Php12,500 so that "the Face of the Filipino Poor" could finally be buried.
Although Mang Pandoy"s symbolic role in Philippine history has been far greater, it has been likened to that of Joe The Plumber in the 2008 United States Presidential Elections.
