Nasugbu Batangas

Nasugbu Batangas is the pen name of Jayzl (nèe John Eduard) Villafania-Nebre, a journalist from the Philippines. Born on 07 March 1983 in the humble town of Nasugbu in the Province of Batangas (from where he got his nom de plume), Jayzl started writing for a national daily in the age of 12 when he published an article in the now defunct The Philippine Daily Tribune. At present, he continues to write for Remate, a national daily tabloid in Filipino.

Early Childhood

Jayzl's childhood was mostly spent in his native Batangas. Although he is actually half Ilocano, he never actually related to its people until very recently. He was not even taugh the language, since it will be of no use if he lives in Southern Luzon. He was raised in a family, whose main trade is fishing, and thus he developed a deep reverence for the ocean and the waters. Also, being a Batangueño, he grew up hearing stories about the mysterious Taal Lake.

As the practice in the provinces, he was enrolled very early to attend his preschool education. He attended his preschool at Librado Elena Memorial School, a preschool runned by the National Federation of Women's Clubs in the Philippines. Though he never bacame excellent in academics, he never failed to get the attention of his mentors.

Elementary Education

At the age of six, Jayzl attended his first elementary school at the Lourdes School of Nasugbu. However, at the middle of the year, his father decided to bring him to Pampanga where he would spend the following year. Also, his father decided that schooling was still too early, as the official age to begin elementary back then was 7. This led him to stop for a year and enter again as a First Grader in Chevalier School in Angeles City, Pampanga in 1990.

The next year, his father decided to send him to Makati City for him to continue his second year in elementary but the school year has barely begun when he decided to send him back to Nasugbu once again. From then on, he attended and finished his elementary at the Nasugbu West Central School, the biggest Elementary School in the whole of Sotuhern Tagalog, both in terms of size and population.

During his stay in the said school, Jayzl was consistently being complained by his teacher as a lazy boy but his eloquence became a hindrance for them to remove him in the first section. Because of this, he became a loner and never had much close friends.

During his sixth year in elementary, Jayzl discovered his talent in journalism. Be became a representative of the school for different journalism contests and was lucky to back the third place for copyreading. From then on, he started to write essays and poems which was published in the school's official newsletter. This year also saw the publication of his first professional article regarding how Filipinos celebrate Christmas, his mother being an editor of the paper. It was published on Christmas Eve of 1995. During this year also, he joined the list of the NWCS' students who topped the National Elementary Achievement Test.

High School

Although he never made it to the Honour Roll, Jayzl was accepted in the prestigious Apolinario R. Apacible School of Fisheries, having the third highest score in their overall assessment. He ranked third among the only 120 students accepted for that year. As expected, he was once again sent to represent his school in different fields of knowledge like journalism, and the unexpected Mathematics (although their school was disqualified due to the number of its victories in the past years).

However, he needed to leave ARASOF the next year as his mother decided to bring him to Manila. He then attended the San Sebastian College.