Manila, March 7 -- I was born in the flowery month of May 1939, just four months and 21 days ahead of the founding of Quezon City on Oct. 12 of the same year by then-President Manuel L. Quezon. I was baptized eight days later at the then 38-year-old Our Lady of Mercy Parish church in the former town proper of Novaliches in Rizal province.

At that time, the address of my parents, four brothers and one sister, was Barrio Capri, Novaliches, Caloocan, Rizal.

Shortly before my mother died in February 1947, three months before I turned eight years old, she enrolled me at a primary school in nearby Barrio Caybiga, Novaliches, Caloocan.

On July 17, 1948, the then two-year-old First Philippine Congress (1946-1949) enacted Republic Act ( RA) No....