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About the Writer:

Ferdinand R. Tamayo was born in 1967 in Sayabouri, the

People’s Republic of Laos, during the height of the Vietnam War. He
grew up in the Philippines and in Papua New Guinea, where he
successfully completed his basic education in the tough Australian
New South Wales education system. This came as a great surprise
because Mr. Tamayo’s favorite subjects during those days were
recess, lunch break, and home time.

Feeling rather intoxicated with his academic success, he came home to the Philippines
in 1987 and promptly found himself enrolled by his father in the Ateneo de Manila University.
To his even greater surprise, he completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Management in
the regulation four years, favorite subjects notwithstanding.

In 1998, feeling that he missed school life, he returned to school to take up units in
professional education followed by an MA in Education. He enrolled himself in the Bulacan
State University, amidst cries of outrage from his family, who all thought he was far too serious
to become a credible educator.

He is still at it, still enrolled at the Bulacan State University where he is taking up his
Master in Business Administration, at the same time he is taking up Computer Science in
another local college. And if he is still sane after all this, he wants to pursue a degree in
philosophy.

He professes to love philosophy, particularly existentialism and the ethics. He applies

both to his daily life as well as his work as an educator and manager, or so he says. In fact he
says a lot of things, including things about meaning and truth, most particularly while intoxicated
with alcohol. He also goes on about values, too, but waxes most philosophically over a beer (or
two or three) and some pizza.

Meanwhile, after graduation from the Ateneo in 1991, he began his career in
management. He worked in a bank, where he found vast amounts of money that could never
be his, so he resigned. Next, while working with his father in the family agribusiness, he started
a number of other, smaller side businesses, including: a computer shop, a restaurant, and a
garment factory. All but the garment factory failed. No, in fact all of them failed, but the
garment factory lingered on in a state of semi-death for the longest. These failures, however,
he values in his peculiar way because of the experience. Because of this, he says, he knows
what to avoid and more importantly how to handle people, and hopes his future business
ventures would benefit from this, his strongest management asset.

He began teaching in 1999, and continues to do so to this day, not because he finds it
fulfilling and enjoyable but because he thinks his students still believe him. In the years to
come, he plans to start his own school. He comes from a family of educators, and with their
help along with their money as well as his experience in management and love of philosophy he
thinks this venture will (finally) succeed.

So what’s left to say? He remains as handsome and as witty as ever; and grows more
loveable with each passing year. You can be sure that this is so since he wrote this little essay
himself, and his dedication to truth, values, and the Filipino way of life is absolutely notorious.

He is married to Madelene Santos, a psychology graduate, who takes no responsibility

for his sanity. They have a daughter, Faustene, three bikes named Max, Tim and Hula Girl, and
two loveable and fiercely loyal dogs Fly and Mermaid. They all live in Malolos City, Bulacan.