So how exactly does one introduce one’s self? Well, my name is Bong, though a few people call me by my full name Jeremy. I’m a native of the Philippines and was born in the Libertad, Antique in January 13, 1972.  I spent my childhood days in Antique.  In summer of 1986, I went to Bayawan, Negros Oriental to study my first year highschool with the Augustinian Recollect Sisters (St. Augustine Academy).  After the traumatic year of being separated from my family, I did decide to go back to Antique and find a good school, though my studies in Negros was academically excellent.  After so much musings, I settled at Sto. Niņo Minor Seminary in Numancia, Aklan.  For three years, I lived with a totally new environment which would later influenced my psyche -- all boys and a well-disciplined habit of prayers, manualia, Latin and Spanish declensions and conjugations.  The agonizing yet memorable three years of rigorous preparation for priesthood (in high school!) had its fruits when I read the valedictory address in March 1989.

I had initially moved to Davao City in 1993 after my Pre-Divinity studies in Ateneo de Manila University and stayed there for about three years. In the beginning of 1996, I found a better time to enhance my career. I went to Ateneo de Manila for my masteral degree. I had so much going for me in Manila and moving to a new place and transferring to a new perpective (from teaching to being a student again) would require me to start all over again.  I lived in Kristong Hari Foundation, an NGO serving the urban poor.

Regarding my personality, I can only tell you what people have told me and from what I’ve observed. People, for some strange reason, automatically believe that I’m a smart person (bola). I don’t believe I’m smart, just logical. I’m definitely a quiet and shy person. I generally tend to be timid and shy when I’m around a big group of strangers. I’m obviously more upbeat and outgoing when I’m with my closer friends. Everyone, more or less, loves me.  A lot hate me. Whoa, perhaps, because I put more pressure on them in my class, or because I have my way of pushing things to their limit.

I focus most of my interests in philosophy, arts, and music. I love the visual arts and I’m planning to pursue that field in the near future, aside from my socio-political and ethical inclination in philosophy. People say I’m rigid and structured person. Call it being proud but I have no doubt that I am. I’m not a disorganized brat. At least I don’t like to consider myself as one. I hate the word. I also love the theater. I’m not a big theater person but I love watching musicals whenever I get a chance to. Like everyone else in the world, I’m a lover of music. Jazz and OPM are main types of music. My favorite jazz musicians include Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. When it comes to OPM music, I listen to a lot Lea Salonga, Apo Hiking Society, and Side A. I don’t really keep up with the music of today anymore. Only when friends bring new artists to my attention is really the only time I listen to new artists.

Besides the arts, I also read and write a lot when I have nothing else better to do. I always have a lot in my mind and writing is really the only way I get to express my thoughts. I don’t really consider them as poetry. Maybe some of them but for the most part, they’re thoughts in my mind written in stanza. Yeah, I guess that’s called poetry. I have six journals, two sketchbooks and a collection of essays in Filipino. They are my only comforter and escape.