As rising oil prices drive up fares, food costs, and daily expenses, many Filipino families are forced to think twice before leaving home. In this crisis, a simple tool has become unexpectedly helpful: AnoMura, an app that shows which gas stations offer the lowest fuel prices and which market goods are most affordable. Created by 25-year-old Geian Mark “Gian” Denorte, a former Security Bank Foundation scholar, it was not designed as a business venture but as a solution to a hardship he once experienced himself.

When Gian released the app, he never expected it to go viral. Widely shared on social media, AnoMura quickly caught public attention and was featured by Radar PH, 8List PH, BetterGov, DWWW Radio, DZMM Radio, and Manila Bulletin Balita. It soon became a practical daily guide for commuters, drivers, and families trying to stretch every peso.

But behind this success is a childhood marked by instability. After his parents separated, Gian and his siblings moved from one home to another, sometimes split apart, sometimes reunited, always uncertain. A small family business collapsed, relatives struggled to support them, and tragedy struck when a stepbrother died from asthma before reaching a hospital. His mother fell into deep depression but fought to keep her children together, and Gian grew up learning that survival meant enduring whatever came. “Sobrang hirap mag-aral kapag palipat-lipat ka ng school, nawawala ako sa focus,” Gian shared.

College felt like a fragile chance. He applied to only one university, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, because it was all he could afford. When he was told that exam slots were already full, he refused to leave, signed the waitlist, and returned before dawn when he was called back. He passed and received a scholarship from Security Bank Foundation that eased some burdens, but poverty did not disappear. Part of his allowance still went to helping his family, while transportation, food, and school expenses remained daily worries. To get by, he relied on convenience-store reward points, small sales to classmates, and whatever cheap food he could find, often just siopao, hotdogs, or coffee.

He took on nearly every job available such as construction, factory work, fast food, ride-hailing but his body could not handle the strain. Accounting did not feel right either; what he loved was computers. Eventually, exhausted and unsure, he stopped attending college and drifted for a time, believing he had little worth and no clear future. “I really felt that I have no worth,” Gian emotionally admitted.

At his lowest point, he chose to try again. With no money for school, he taught himself web development using free online resources, studying day and night for months. Rejections came repeatedly, especially from local companies, but a remote startup in Australia finally gave him a chance. In 2021, he became a junior software engineer because he proved he could learn.

The idea for AnoMura came from the pandemic, when he was the one sent to buy groceries without knowing real prices and often spent more than planned. Years later, he turned that frustration into a tool that now helps thousands make smarter choices, whether at the market or at the gas pump. For Gian, the app’s real success is knowing it helps families like his.

Despite everything he has achieved, Gian says his journey is not a typical success story,  especially for someone who stopped school and has no college degree. He has no diploma or powerful connections, only self-taught skills, persistence, and people who believed in him when he had nothing. He remains deeply grateful to the Security Bank Foundation, whose scholarship supported him during one of the hardest times in his life. His message is simple but heartfelt: “Huwag magsawang tumulong sa mga batang kapos.”

Gian completed his second year in college as a Security Bank Foundation scholar, but when classes returned to face-to-face, the mounting costs and the need to help his family made it impossible to continue. Stepping away from school was not a choice made lightly, it was a sacrifice shaped by reality. Yet his story did not end there.

Today, he has risen from deep poverty to a stable life, carrying dreams that remain humble but profound: to build libraries filled with books and computers for children, and one day to return to school to finally earn the degree he once had to set aside. His journey reminds us that detours are not dead ends. Sometimes, they are simply the longer road toward the life we are meant to build.

To access AnoMura and use it for your daily convenience, visit https://anomura.today/#home.