A Filipino fisherman who was lost at sea for 10 days, lived alone in an uninhabited island for three days, lived with inhabitants of another island for a month before being brought to Koror in Palau, was finally repatriated to the Philippines after a two month absence.

The Philippine News Agency reported that Jonathan Tawameo, from the southern city of General Santos, went to fish alone on May 17. He left aboard a smaller boat, and when he went back to join a fishing fleet, it had already left.

Tawameo got caught in the storm and drifted for 10 days, surviving on rain water and fish before taking refuge in an uninhabited island, where he found an unoccupied hut and fishing gear. For three days, he survived on wild papaya and fish.

A native from Sonsorol Island, the remotest island of the tiny island republic of Palau in the Pacific Ocean, spotted Tawameo there and brought him to their island on May 30. The friendly Sonsorolese took care of the lost Filipino fisherman and radioed authorities in the main island of Koror to fetch him.

When the scheduled boat visit from Koror arrived in Sonsorol after a month, Palauan authorities took Tawameo with them on the return trip to the capital 800 kilometers (497 miles) away on June 28.

Officials from the Philippine Embassy in Koror, where some 5,000 Filipinos work, met him and arranged his repatriation to the Philippines.

Finally, on July 18, Tawameo flew to Cebu City in central Philippines, where a representative of his employer came to take him to General Santos City.