Man Who Filled Container With ₱20 Bills Admits Being Inspired By Yorme's ‘Etneb' Remark

If you were amazed by the photos of a young man who recently went viral for filling a 30-liter drum with 20-peso bills, wait until you get to read his inspiring story.

- Dennis Principe

January of this year, 22-year old Tondo, Manila resident Gerdan Tolero thought about saving every 20-peso bill out of the daily earnings he got from his modest “gulaman” (cold drink with jelly bits) and fish vending.

“Yun kasi ang pinakamaliit na perang papel at nasiyahan din po ako dahil tugma rin po sa sinasabi ni Mayor Isko (Moreno) na ‘etneb’ (That’s the smallest denomination and I am happy to say that I drew inspiration from Mayor Isko’s term for it which is ‘etneb’ (twenty),” said Tolero.

While he seems to be currently doing well for being able to maintain two decent ventures, Tolero went through a lot in trying to regain everything that they lost during what was supposed to be a discouraging experience last year.

Tolero’s family was one of the more than 400 families who lost their homes during a huge fire that broke out one Saturday morning in April, 2020 in Happy Land in Tondo, Manila.

“Ubos lahat ng gamit namin. Ang natira lang yung isang alkansya ko na puno ng barya. Binasag namin, umabot ng halos 1,000 pesos. Mahilig na talaga akong mag-ipon noon (Everything that we owned was gone. All that was left was my coin bank. We broke it and the content amounted to almost P1,000,” recalled Tolero in an interview with Manila Bulletin.

While it would be understandable for their family to feel downtrodden after the incident, Tolero had other things in mind that turned out to be good enough to start their recovery from that painful experience.