Before he became proficient as a dancer, Alex, 48, was first a singer. He was singing at the Wild Duck nightclub on Roxas Blvd., at Eduardo’s and in Olongapo. He became a professional balladeer in 1983 after years of participating and consistently winning in amateur singing contests and singing competitions over the radio and on TV, like Student Canteen and Bagong Kampeon. His prize from Bagong Kampeon consisted of P1,000 in cash and P1,500 in gift certificates.
In 1997, a client at the nightclub urged him to take up dancing. Taking up his suggestion, he hired a tutor to teach him all the dance steps, which he learned easily. But Alex didn’t find work as a dancer. Instead, he became a DI.
As a DI, he earns P1,000 to P2,500 per session, which usually lasts from 8 p.m. to midnight, with about three to four students sharing the cost. When he became a DI, he started working as a part-time singer.
Alex was born into a poor family. His father was a self-employed carpenter, earning about P2 per day, while his mother was a plain housewife. He has six sisters and is the sixth of seven siblings.
He started working when he was seven years old, when he was in first grade at the Sabang Elementary School in Naga City. With his sisters, he helped sell tomatoes, onions and calamansi in the market. In 1963, when he was eight years old, he peddled maruya at five centavos and 10 centavos each. He got a 10 percent commission or a share of 70 centavos from the gross earnings of P7. When he was in Grade 3, he vended biscuits, peanuts and soft drinks in a movie house, which he obtained from a nearby canteen owned by the proprietor of the movie house. He received a commission of P3.60 from his gross earnings of P36, which was more money than his father made. When he was 10 years old, he sold bottled water to train passengers on the Bicol Express at 25 centavos a bottle.
Then his family moved to Manila. Alex recalls that they were so poor that he considered children with sandwiches to eat as rich. They never tasted bangus, only tulingan and galunggong.
In Manila, Alex went to the Burgos Elementary School in Sta. Mesa. After school, he worked as a part-time baggage boy and sold camote tops and kangkong from house to house in the barangay. When he was in Grade 5, he was hired as a helper in a lumber store, working five hours a day and earning P6 per day. He worked there until he was 16 years old.
Alex told his mother he wanted to stop schooling when he was in first year at the Elpidio Quirino High School and work instead full-time since he enjoyed working and had a knack for earning money. His mother acceded to his request.
But Alex never actually stopped learning. He read up on personal development, good manners, public speaking and the Constitution, consulting a dictionary when he didn’t know the meaning of a word.
In 1972, he was hired as a laborer at the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company. He had to lie about his age; he said he was 21 when he was just 17. When he resigned after a year, he received a separation pay of P9,800.
From 1973 to 1976, he worked as a security guard at Elizalde’s. He had to fake a high school diploma to be taken in since the job required an applicant to have finished secondary school. Later, his manager noticed that he had a good voice and had him trained to be a telephone operator.
In 1977, he enrolled at the Samson Fashion School for six months to learn tailoring. After that, he worked as a self-employed tailor for two years.
From 1978 to 1985, he maintained a sidewalk lugawan selling goto for 50 centavos a bowl.
In 1980, he began to join singing competitions. He sang at fiestas alongside such singing personalities as Regine Velasquez. In 1983, he gave his lugawan to his sister to concentrate on singing. He continued singing full-time until 1997 when he became a DI.
In May, 2000, Alex started making resin and ceramic moldings of figurines and picture frames that he sold to private elementary and secondary schools, which the students painted as their art projects. At P60 each, the schools would order by the hundreds and even thousands. He employed four workers to help him. Later Alex closed this business because of the harmful effects of the chemicals used.
Eventually, with his earnings as DI and from the school projects, which he manufactured, he gradually acquired a number of taxicabs. With the profit realized through the operation of his taxicabs and with a loan he obtained from friends, he increased his fleet to eight cabs. However, he kept just five because maintaining them was a headache.
In July, 2003, Alex opened a canteen named Lugawan Alex and a gym called Healthway with the money from the sale of the three taxicabs.
Despite his business concerns, Alex has not given up on his work as a DI because it is one job he is good at and enjoys doing. He got married in 1976 at the age of 21. Three children were born, now aged 27, 22 and 19. He was widowed in 1988. He had a second relationship, which produced a child, now eight years old. He has three grandchildren.
Alex has always been a dreamer. But he is also a man of action. He does whatever he can conceive of doing. He is a jack-of-all-trades and tries to master all. He believes that if a person dreams and observes and has common sense, imagination and perseverance, he will somehow rise from his poverty to prosperity. His life proves that.