HOME SWEET HOME. Roel Navidad shortly after he arrived at a border control point in Taft, Eastern Samar on Tuesday (Sept. 29, 2020). After hundreds of kilometers of walk from Metro Manila and being stuck in a quarantine center in Sorsogon, the jobless man finally arrived in his hometown in General Macarthur, Eastern Samar on Tuesday night. (Photo courtesy of Vince Yadao)
TACLOBAN CITY – After walking hundreds of kilometers from Metro Manila and being stuck in a quarantine center in Sorsogon, a jobless man finally arrived in Eastern Samar on Tuesday.
The story of Roel Navidad, 27, has gone viral on social media after Vince Yadao, an employee of the Department of Public Works and Highways assigned at a checkpoint in Taft, Eastern Samar posted a photo of the man wearing a worn-out shirt, pants, and slippers.
Yadao said Navidad left Manila in the third week of August and arrived in Sorsogon early in September after walking for about 600 km.
He was quarantined in the province for 14 days being a suspected carrier of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
“He continued walking to Matnog, Sorsogon on September 16 until he embarked on a ferry boat to Allen, Northern Samar. He had to hitch a ride with a passing truck from Allen to Jiabong, Samar. He again resumed walking from Jiabong to the boundary checkpoint in Taft, Eastern Samar,” Yadao said in his post.
Jiabong is about 82 km. from Taft town where the Eastern Samar border control point was set up by the local government.
Navidad, a native of General Macarthur, Eastern Samar, lost his job as a construction worker.
Without money in his pocket, he walked the seemingly endless road to be with his family, Yadao said.
Some people he met along the way gave him food and water.
After hours of rest and good meals at the border control point, the local government of General Macarthur picked him up at 10 p.m. on Tuesday and brought him to the quarantine center where he will stay for 14 days, Yadao said in a message to the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Navidad is the second returning resident of Eastern Samar who took the unimaginable journey home from Metro Manila in the past two weeks.
On September 21, Peter Roncales, 19, arrived in Oras town from Parañaque City after 10 days of biking. (PNA)
