Lapu teen thanks heavens for good fortune: Jobless dropout wins P1 million

An out-of-school and jobless furniture maker's daughter from Lapulapu City virtually struck gold yesterday by winning one million pesos in a television game show held live at the Cebu City Sports Complex.

Eighteen-year-old Ellamie Inot promptly thanked Jesus, himself a son of a carpenter, for the windfall and vowed to pursue her studies, as well as help provide for her family, including her seven siblings.

Ellamie won the jackpot prize of one million pesos in the " Laban o Bawi " segment of the popular noontime television show Eat Bulaga on GMA Channel 7.

She, along with several other relatives, had come to the sports complex early, consumed by an eerie feeling of being lucky.

" Somehow, I had a feeling that I would win, " Ellamie said after her unbelievable stroke of luck, trying to catch her breath in between the words.

The girl who wants to be a nurse someday was just one of several contestants pre-selected for the contest. She went to the sports complex accompanied by a huge retinue of relatives, arriving as early as 7 a.m. and armed only with a deep abiding faith that God was about to change her life, and enough food provisions to tide them over from breakfast to lunch.

Yesterday's contest involved 19 pre-selected contestants who were asked a variety of questions by show hosts Tito, Vic and Joey in an elimination process that eventually left Ellamie standing alone confronting two boxes, either of which could contain the jackpot prize or a big fat egg in an all-or-almost-nothing game..

After having chosen a box, the hosts then tried to entice Ellamie to give up her choice by offering her an ever increasing amount of money that, however, falls far short of one million pesos, provided of course that the jackpot prize was in the chosen box.

Ellamie did not flinch. She stuck it out with her choice. When the time was up and it was time to reveal what the chosen box contained, the tens of thousands who packed the sports complex fell into a deep hush and then erupted into lusty cheers when the box contained one million pesos.

With tears in her eyes but a wide grin on her face, Ellamie exulted with the crowd.

She said she was so excited about the contest she did not sleep a wink the night before.

Not only was it her first tv appearance, she hardly could not believe her luck when her name was announced last Friday despite having submitted only a single entry.

She failed to submit more entries because she only had one picture, which was a requirement for each entry. She had used up all her other pictures for several job applications, none of which landed her a job.

But now that she has the money, Ellamie said she would now instead go to college and take up nursing.

She has never been to college, the family not having the money to even make ends meet,

Her father is a furniture maker but does not get enough orders. The mother has no job and all her siblings still depend on what the father earns, including two elder ones who have married.

Aside from pursuing her studies, Ellamie said she also wants to give her father some seed money so he can have his own furniture business and not depend on job orders from others. She also wants to send her other siblings to school to finish their own aborted studies.