Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r3jgayag5unxvtl/VRP14563.mp4?dl=0
Two Filipino brothers have been living in a tiny wooden hut about as big as a dog kennel for the last 10 years.
Manuel Ballatong, 42, and his younger brother Mario, 36, share the small den made from scrap wood and steel roof in Nueva Vizcaya province, the Philippines.
Relatives said the pair were suspected to be suffering from mental illness which caused them to become violent at times. Sometimes, the brothers would become aggressive for unknown reasons and try to hurt neighbours.
To keep the brothers and the people around them safe, family members built the tight space 25ft-away from their house. They would seemingly return to their normal selves, but it would only last for a week at most.
Their sister, Jocelyn, who works as a domestic helper in Singapore, sends money to her elderly mother who takes care of the siblings.
However, her income was not enough to send the two to better hospitals in the capital city Manila who could properly diagnose them.
Jocelyn said the brothers had been to local hospitals before, but the medics said ‘they were normal.’
She said: ‘They need to be checked by doctors from a larger hospital. The ones here told the family that they were not sick.’
Concerned neighbours would sometimes visit the brothers and give them food as their old mother could barely work and take care of them.
One of their neighbours Vra Buhente is now appealing for people who can help the sick brothers, who have been isolated for more than a decade.
She said: ‘Their family is kind, but they don’t have much choice because they don’t have a lot of money. I hope someone could help them get medical care.’