At 21, Daniel “Dan” Villamor Quisaot’s life was supposed to be just beginning. A senior student at Central Mindanao University (CMU) studying Electrical Engineering, he was young, in love, and building his future. But that future was abruptly shattered when he was accused of rape by his ex-girlfriend—a charge that would cost him his freedom, reputation, and two years of his life.

In Toni Gonzaga’s emotional Toni Talks episode, Dan recounted how a breakup spiraled into a nightmare that nearly destroyed him—but also transformed him in ways he never imagined.

Dan was just 20 or 21 when he fell in love for the first time. But when he decided to end the relationship to return to his church ministry, everything changed.
“She cried,” Dan recalled, “and kept asking, ‘Where did I fall short?’”

Days later, while walking through the university, police officers arrested him. “Everyone looked at me like I was the worst person,” he said quietly.

He was thrown into a small, overcrowded prison cell where the stench, fear, and violence were constant companions. “In my first week, I couldn’t sleep lying down because it was too cramped,” he said. “Sometimes there were fights and killings. They’d hide the bodies in septic tanks so there’d be no evidence.”

Every day was survival. “Sometimes, when I’d stare blankly, they’d punch me and say, ‘Don’t be sad. Someone still loves you outside.’”

But in the middle of chaos came what Dan called the twist of his life.

A priest, Rev. Fr. Jojo Sumastre, learned about Dan’s story and decided to help. Fr. Jojo personally met with CMU’s President and the Engineering Department, persuading them to allow Dan to finish his degree from inside prison.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Dan said. “Even the department wanted me to graduate.”

From that moment, his cell became his classroom. His classmates brought him lectures. His fellow inmates—men who had lost hope long ago—helped him with his thesis. “While I was studying, sometimes people were fighting behind me,” he said with a half-smile. “But I kept going.”

Dan handwrote his thesis in his cramped cell. It was encoded by someone outside the prison. He studied by flashlight when the lights went out. He prayed when despair crept in.

And then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the impossible happened.

“The warden turned the speaker toward our cell,” Dan recalled. “Then I heard it—‘Daniel Villamor Quisaot, BS in Electrical Engineering.’ Everyone inside shouted.”

In that moment, the walls that held him became witnesses to something extraordinary: a man who refused to let injustice destroy his dream.

But behind the cheers was heartbreak. Dan’s father, who had stopped visiting, was dying of Stage 4 cancer. “I prayed and prayed to be free so I could see him,” Dan said. “After a month, the complainant withdrew the case.”

When Dan finally walked out of jail, he didn’t rush home. Instead, he went cell to cell, praying for every inmate he had lived with.
“One of them said, ‘Dan, come pray for us too,’” he remembered.

“I told the Lord, ‘I wish You hadn’t imprisoned me—I would have come here to worship instead,’” Dan said.

Toni responded softly, “That was the purpose—to show them that there’s still hope, even inside prison.”

Today, Dan is a registered Electrical Engineer with four PRC licenses and a master’s degree. When he visits job sites, he sometimes runs into his former cellmates.
“They say, ‘Dan, do you still remember us?’” he shared. “Some are now construction workers, some are electricians. They started new lives too.”

Dan now believes everything he went through had a divine purpose. “Someone told me, ‘You were chosen because God knew you could handle it,’” he said. “Those are my beautiful scars.”

He carries no hatred, only lessons.
“When you go through something painful, don’t ask, ‘Why me?’ Ask instead, ‘What are You teaching me, Lord? What are You preparing me for?’”

His story has since become a beacon of hope for countless Filipinos facing their own dark seasons. What the world saw as punishment, Dan now sees as preparation—a painful but powerful testimony of faith, perseverance, and redemption.

From a jail cell to the engineer’s stage, from accusation to vindication, Dan Quisaot’s story is proof that no wall is too high, no past too heavy, and no injustice too final for God to turn into victory.

Because sometimes, the place where you lose everything… is exactly where you find your purpose.