Woman finds a bag filled with love letters in the ceiling of ancestral house

"Iniibig kita. Ikaw lamang ang babaeng iniibig ko nang tapat, nang higit pa sa aking buhay."

These were the words that greeted Gela Petines when she found an old bag filled with love letters in the ceiling of her family's ancestral house.

The letters were written by a man named Alfredo Custodio and addressed to a woman called Daday. Gela posted what she found on Facebook in the hopes of finding the man who wrote such romantic declarations of love.

"Isa po akong fan ni Mang Fred," she said in Mariz Umali's report for "24 Oras." "'Yung generation po kasi namin hindi na gumagamit nang ganito kalalim na mga pananalita. Ngayon kasi ano na lang eh, 'hello, kamusta?'"

Aside from the letters, Gela found an old ID with Mang Fred's name and a photo negative of a man and a woman. With the help of an app, she was able to see what the picture really looked like.

Thanks to social media, she was able to find Mang Fred and speak to him through video call.

The man, now 65 years old, said he was only 21 years old when he wrote the letters to his first love. He clarified, however, that the woman in the photo is not Daday, but his sister.

Mang Fred said he wrote the letters because he was having second thoughts about courting Daday, fearing that she might reject him.

"Hanggang ngayon ay umaasa pa rin ako na hindi mo pababayaan ang aking pusong malunod sa dusa at karimlan," he wrote in one of the letters.

"Dinaan ko na lang sa sulat, iniwan ko na lang pati 'yung bag. Sabi ko sa mga kaibigan ko, kasamahan ko sa trabaho, kung halimbawa 'ka ko makita n'yo, pakibigay na lang kay Daday," Mang Fred said.

The letters did not make it to Daday, but Mang Fred said he doesn't regret how things turned out because he eventually met the one for him.

"Hindi ko na masasabi na may interes pa ako na pagmamahal sa kanya kasi mayroon na rin akong asawa," he said.

Gela, meanwhile, could not help but be touched by words Mang Fred penned to express his love.

"Gusto ko siguro makaramdam na makatanggap ng mga ganitong salita. Kasi pinag-isipan talaga, napaka-sincere, at sa bawat sulat kasi kailangan mo ilaan lahat ng saloobin," she said. —MGP, GMA News