Michelle Enriquez is the founder and owner of DIY Travel Philippines, the country’s leading online travel community that she built from a personal passion project into a thriving digital space with millions of members. What took years of dedication, resilience through a global pandemic, and genuine love for her fellow Filipino travelers is now at the center of an unexpected fight, one she did not start, but is determined to finish.

Enriquez first noticed something was wrong during what seemed like a routine login on Facebook. “As soon as I entered my password into the malicious site, I couldn’t access the page or group admin anymore,” she said. “I immediately changed my passwords, but it was a total account takeover.”

Even after resetting her credentials, her Facebook account continued acting on its own, publishing malicious content across her platforms without her knowledge or consent. By the time the damage was fully visible, her personal Facebook account had already been permanently disabled following a Meta review. The enforcement, as far as she and her team are concerned, was the direct result of violations committed by the attackers themselves and not by her or anyone on her team.

Then came the message that made it undeniably personal. The hackers contacted Enriquez directly, telling her they had taken control of the group. Their demand was simple: pay up, or don’t get it back.

Two of her most significant Facebook assets were caught in the crossfire. Her Facebook page, DIY Travel Philippines, was eventually recovered thanks largely to the swift action of Ryan Molina, her co-administrator of DIY Travel Philippines, who stepped in immediately when the crisis unfolded. But the Facebook group, also named DIY Travel Philippines, with 1.7 million members built over nearly a decade, remains inaccessible to Enriquez. A second Facebook community, DIY Travel PH Events, Tours, and Vans, with 353,900 members, was also affected.

Molina, working on behalf of Enriquez, attempted to escalate the situation further through Meta Support using his verified Facebook account, but beyond the recovery of the page, no additional assistance was extended. The Facebook group, where the hackers had posted prohibited content under Enriquez’s compromised account, became the sticking point that Meta would not move on.

Despite Enriquez and her team’s persistent claim that their account had been compromised and that none of the malicious content was posted by them, Facebook Meta cited Community Guidelines violations as the basis for denying the group’s recovery. No favorable results have come out of their repeated appeals, and the group continues to remain out of their hands.

Enriquez did not stop at the standard support channels. With assistance from Senator Raffy Tulfo, she was able to reach out via email to Meta Philippines. Still, no resolution has come through for the Facebook group. “I have searched high and low on how to get support for a Facebook community group and came up with nothing useful,” she said, “since my account has already been permanently disabled.”

The community has since been informed through an announcement posted on the restored Facebook page. But with pending projects that require direct access to the group, the road ahead remains uncertain for Enriquez.

This is a particularly painful chapter for someone who poured years into what began as nothing more than a personal curiosity. Enriquez started DIY Travel Philippines back in 2015 as a Facebook group, at a time when social media travel communities were still a novelty, largely as a way to explore her own country. Having grown up in Singapore and the United Kingdom, she had seen much of the world before she truly got to know the Philippines. The community grew steadily on the platform, survived the pandemic, and eventually crossed the one million member milestone during lockdowns. It became more than just a travel guide. It became a genuine community.

That Facebook community now sits in limbo, its original steward locked out and its group held by a platform decision that has yet to account for the human behind the account.

For Enriquez, she wants what was taken from her back. And she wants Facebook to have a better answer for creators and community builders when the worst happens, because right now, it simply does not.