“He rented a mountain to raise 30 pigs and abandoned it for 5 years. One day he returned and was paralyzed by what he saw…

He rented a mountain to raise 30 pigs and abandoned it for 5 years. One day he returned and was paralyzed by what he saw…

In 2018, Rogelio “Roger” Santos, a 34-year-old man from Nueva Écija, dreamed of escaping poverty by raising pigs. He rented a vacant lot on a mountain in the town of Carranglan to turn it into a small pigpen.

He spent all his savings, even taking out a loan from the Philippine Land Bank, built pigsties, installed a deep well, and bought 30 piglets.

The day he took the first litter of pigs up the mountain, he proudly told his wife Marites, 31:

“Wait for me. In a year, we’ll be able to build our own house.”

But life wasn’t as easy as the television success stories about getting rich.