Through the Decades....The 1990's

The 1990's was largely a decade of self-discovery, reflection, and evaluation for me. After four years of arduous and unrelenting work at the Virology Laboratory, sometimes staying overnight in the dead of winter to finish my experiments, i obtained my PhD degree in Veterinary Microbiology from the University of Tokyo in March of 1991. i came home immediately to Manila the following month and reported back to work at the UP College of Veterinary Medicine at UPLB shortly thereafter. This time, i didn't stay at the campus but opted to commute daily from Manila to Los Banos, Laguna.

During this time (and even before i came home), my friend Benjie has been involved with a seminar organization that promotes excellence and personal growth by providing the tools necessary to balance one's physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual natures... leading to peace of mind and perfect self-expression. At first i was reluctant to take their seminars. I was even thinking that this might be a cult because everyone in his group seems to be happy and contented always... but without the "Ohm...Ohm...Ohm..." chanting! But because of the positive results that i saw in benjie and in his new-found friends and because i realized that up until that point i've been putting too much emphasis on my mental side, i took the basic seminar two weeks after i arrived from Tokyo. From then on and the rest of the decade, i myself became involved with the group and have taken and staffed all their seminars ...even becoming the Corporate Secretary and Member of the Board of the non-stock, non-profit organization.

Because of the above, i took stock of my life thus far and made some choices that greatly altered its course. Although i love teaching, in 1995, i resigned from the University of the Philippines as an Associate Professor of Veterinary Microbiology (incidentally, i was the Chairman of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Pathology and Public Health of our College at the time of my resignation) to join a private veterinary drug company. I figured that 16 years of serving in the government was enough and it was time to move on and fulfill my greatest potential.

At my new company, we established a Diagnostic and a Vaccine Laboratory that produced Philippine-made vaccines for ruminants and swine. Aside from that we also conducted numerous technical seminars to livestock and poultry producers to promote the health of their animals and to increase their productivity ...so it's as if i didn't leave teaching at all... only this time, i deal with different "students" everytime and i get to travel the entire length of the country.

The latter part of the 90's was a period of great achievements and creativity for me. I received the Most Outstanding Veterinary Practitioner for Research from the Veterinary Practitioners Association of the Philippines (VPAP), i became a Diplomate of the Philippine Academy of Microbiology (PAM), as well as a Charter Diplomate and Vice-President of the Philippine College of Poultry Practitioners, Inc. (PCPP), and i was the National President of the Philippine Society for Microbiology, Inc. (PSM) bringing the Society into the next millennium ....all these while i spent most of my non-working hours and weekends staffing and coaching self-awareness seminars!