Francis Anthony Narvasa had only gone to pick up some packages.
It was November 4, 2025, and Typhoon Tino was battering Barangay Cotcot, in Liloan, Cebu, with floods sweeping people away in the current. The police asked him for help. People were trapped, the water was rising, and time was running out. The only problem: the truck he was using was not his, it belonged to the company he worked for, and his boss was not answering the phone.
Francis decided to act anyway. Along with his assistants, he drove the vehicle into the flooded area and used it as a barrier to rescue the trapped residents. Together, with police support, they brought at least six people out alive, including an officer who was injured during the operation.
Days later, when the video went viral and Francis was being celebrated as a hero, his employer notified him that he was fired: he had used the truck without authorization. The Philippine Department of Labor opened an investigation into possible wrongful dismissal.
Public outrage reached the provincial government. Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro ordered that he be hired immediately as a Capitol driver. DOLE announced that it would formally honor him in December. Saving six lives cost Francis his job—but it also gave him back, in another way, everything he had risked.