OTHER ARTICLES
Ten Quotations to Get You in the Mood
Do You Want to Donate
Your Body Parts?
The Filipino's Character
According to the Stars
Easing the Transition from Life to Death
THE AUTHOR
So many people say that I'm Chinese because of my last name. It's really my maternal grandfather who came from mainland China at the turn of the century and settled in the Philippines who is Chinese. He married a girl from the small town of Cabagan, Isabela and when he was baptized as a Christian, he adopted one of his sponsor's name Mariano as his own. They had seven children who survived into adulthood. They both died when my mother was still a young married woman so most of us children in the family do not remember seeing them.
My father was from San Mateo, Rizal a few kilometers outside Manila. His father's name was Jose Saguisag, "saguisag" meaning symbol in Tagalog. But it seems his father became wanted by the Spanish authorities for seditious activities when the Filipinos were fighting for independence so he changed his last name to Cangco as one way to get them off his tracks. He married and had one child.
My mother finished medicine at the University of Santo Tomas and my father finished dentistry. He joined the Philippine Constabulary and my mother worked for the government. They had five children and I am the youngest.
I was born in Naguilian, Isabela a small, idyllic town on April 13, 1956. I studied in St, Ferdinand College until Grade IV when my mother, feeling that I was cheated from receiving the first honors award in my class, transferred me to the Ilagan Pilot School, where I graduated valedictorian.
I then went to study and graduated from high school at the Ateneo de Manila. I took up college and graduated with a B.S. Business Management degree from the same school. After school, I had a very short stint in Ayala as a junior researcher, then I became a free lancer, buying and selling cars, at the same time dabbling in writing about the human thought process. After two years, I went to work for the Food Terminal, Inc. then in the National Housing Authority. It was during this time that I took up and finished accounting from the Philippine School of Business Administration, Q.C. It was during this time too that I started writing poetry and my first poem appeared in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine in 1989. After ten years in the government service, I went to work in a remittance company in the U.A.E., which was as challenging as reciting the alphabet backwards. I set myself the goal of writing at least one poem a week or a stanza of four lines everyday. Five years later, I went back to the Philippines and published my collection of poems, Fancy the Minstrel and Other Love Poems Then I had a small business opened with some partners which operated for some years. I am the founder of The Superior of Maitreya Ministry Inc. a Securities and Exchange Commission (CN200510432) registered nonstock, nonprofit religious organization. At present, I give lectures and seminars.
