Skip to content He once rented an empty mountain to raise 30 pigs… then walked away and never came back for five years. When he finally returned, he stopped at the last bend in the road… and couldn’t move after seeing what was waiting there. Back in 2018, Rogelio “Roger” Santos, a 34-year-old man from a small town in Nueva Ecija, believed pig farming could change his life. He wasn’t dreaming about becoming rich overnight. He just wanted something simple. A small house for his wife. A stable life. A future that didn’t feel like constant survival. So Roger rented a forgotten piece of land high up on a mountain in Carranglan and turned it into a tiny piggery. He poured everything into it. All his savings. A bank loan. Weeks of back-breaking work building pens, digging a deep well, and preparing the place for his animals. The day he brought the first 30 piglets up the mountain, he looked at his wife Marites and said with quiet pride: “Just wait. One year from now… we’ll finally have our own house.” For the first time in years, hope felt real. But life had other plans. Only a few months later, African Swine Fever began spreading across Luzon. One farm after another collapsed. Neighbors burned entire pig pens just to stop the disease from spreading. For weeks, thick smoke hung over the mountains like a warning no one could escape. Marites grew more and more afraid. “Let’s sell them while they’re still healthy,” she begged. But Roger refused to give up. “This will pass,” he insisted. “We just have to hold on a little longer.” The sleepless nights began to take their toll. Constant worry. Rising feed prices. Phone calls from the bank asking about loan payments. Eventually Roger collapsed from exhaustion and had to be hospitalized in Cabanatuan. By the time he returned to the mountain… Half of the pigs were already gone. Feed prices had doubled. Debt was growing. And the dream he had built with his own hands was slowly falling apart. One rainy night, sitting alone on the floor of the piggery while the wind rattled the tin roof, Roger whispered something he never thought he would say. “I’m finished.” The next morning, he made the hardest decision of his life. He locked the piggery. Handed the key to the landowner. And walked down the mountain without looking back. In his mind, everything he had built there was already gone. For five years, Roger never returned. He and Marites moved to Quezon City and worked long factory shifts. Life became simple again—no big dreams, just quiet survival. Whenever someone mentioned pig farming, Roger would only smile sadly and say: “I already gave my money to the mountain.” Then earlier this year… His phone rang. It was Mang Tino—the landowner. His voice sounded strange… almost shaken. “Roger… you need to come back up here.” There was a long pause. “Something happened to your old piggery.” The next day Roger traveled more than 40 kilometers back into the mountains. The road he once drove every day was now covered in grass and trees, like nature had slowly erased his past. With every step upward, his heart beat faster. Had the buildings collapsed? Had the place completely disappeared? Or would he find nothing but ruins of the dream he once believed in? But when Roger reached the last curve of the mountain road… He suddenly stopped. Because the piggery he abandoned five years ago… now looked like something he never could have imagined. 👇 The rest of the story is in the first comment
The Farmer Who Thought He Lost Everything A Dream Built on a Mountain In 2018, Rogelio “Roger” Santos, a 34-year-old man from Nueva Écija, dreamed of escaping poverty through pig farming. He rented a vacant lot high on a mountain in the town of Carranglan and decided to build a small pig farm. Roger poured everything … Read more
