Manila, March 27 -- I was born eight decades ago in a sleepy barrio of the former agricultural town of Novaliches, shared since 1948 by Quezon City and Caloocan City, two of the largest and most progressive cities in Metropolitan Manila at present.

My growing-up years coincided with the time when many of the inhabitants of my erstwhile town comprised farming families owning several carabaos and cows as they were then tilling more than 10,000 hectares of rice fields.

Some families also owned horses and raised goats, pigs, ducks and chickens for their milk, meat and egg needs.

While I was in the elementary and high school, I began noticing that many of the family heads in our place, in addition to their traditional first and family names...