Unique Albay

Background

Unique Albay is a pure-blooded Bicolano living in the semi-urban town of Daraga, Albay.

His name is derived from the name of the province he belongs to, Albay. The term "unique" was added to promote the province's many features that distinguishes it from the rest: presence of an almost-perfect-shaped volcano, black-sand beaches, unique delicacies, and unique abaca handicrafts.

He has joined the Wikipedia Community on April 27, 2014 upon the request of his friend to help "rebuild" the Wiki Page of Legazpi, Albay, which has been under a series of attacks of vandalism from some unscrupulous user.

He has vowed to continue his fight to protect and rebuild the page of his beloved city.

Life History

Unique Albay (or UA for short) was born on September 20, 1987, the feast day of Our Lady of Penafrancia, the patroness of Bicol. His father is a litigator and his mother is a veterinarian. He grew up in the chaotic town of Daraga, Albay, whose urban district is adjacent to the urban district of the city of Legazpi, Albay.

While he was growing up, he was fond of reading encyclopedias and almanacs. He rarely played outside because their house was situated next to the national highway. He played peculiar games with his siblings, imitating what usually goes on in a city, in a workplace, in a kingdom, during civil wars, during earthquakes, and during shipwrecks (the last one was inspired by Titanic, a movie about what was supposed to be an unsinkable ship that broke into two on its maiden voyage).

Before beginning his secondary education, he was eligible to enroll at Philippine Science High School Bicol Regional Campus. However, he was particularly unimpressed by its facilities. He was also concerned about the fact that the campus had just been around for two years. In the end, he decided to enroll at a local school to continue his studies.

His high school life was particularly unbearable to him. In 2001, his father lost the elections and was forced to begin his litigating practice anew. They had several family problems as well. Things changed dramatically in that year, which began a long period of confusion in his life. Nevertheless, he continued to do well in his academic life. He won 2nd place in the Math Olympiad Legazpi Division and 2nd place in Math and Science Quiz Bee Legazpi Division in the year 2000. On his second year, due to his diverse knowledge in history, he was elected as the Historical Society President, and was elected again the following year. He was supposed to continue as the president on his fourth year but he felt undeserving of the title.

On the last year of his high school life, UA fell into depression. He passed the entrance exams of UP (Diliman Campus), Ateneo de Manila, DLSU-Manila, and UST but his depression and his mother's persistent will to enroll him at the local university, Bicol University, made him change his mind at the very last minute. At the time of enrollment, one of the professors remarked, "Number 7. You will probably do good." The professor did not know that UA had no interest in the course he enrolled in, which is Accountancy.

His college life began as a breath of fresh air to UA. Bicol University is a state university whose students come from all over the region to study. Despite his lack of interest in Accountancy, he enjoyed his freshman year. He was supposed to transfer to Ateneo the following year but changed his mind because he felt challenged by the intricacies of his course. His social life was particularly vibrant these years. He met many wonderful friends, one of which became his quiz bowl buddy.

UA and his buddy joined several quiz bowl competitions and won six out of nine. They were either second or third in the other three. However, this prolific achievement in competitions hardly ever matter in the life of a regular accountancy student. UA struggled in class, almost failing in some subjects. However, he managed to graduate cum laude in 2008. His group also won the award for Best in Feasibility Studies.

UA eventually passed the board exams in October 2008. Days after the oath-taking ceremony, he took the law aptitude exams of University of the Philippines. Earlier, his parents were able to convince him to take up law. UA never wanted to become a lawyer but because he believes that studying law will enable him to have another perspective on economics (his real passion), he decided to take up law.

In June 2009, UA enrolled at the University of the Philippines College of Law. Upon entering law school, he had serious doubts as to his ability to survive the very strict academic policies of the school. He struggled so much that he had to drop some subjects along the way. He managed to survive two more years before he was eventually advised to transfer due to academic delinquencies even though UA failed only two subjects.

He immediately accepted his defeat and treated it as an opportunity to restructure his career. UA could have easily transferred to Ateneo, San Beda, UST or even DLSU. However, those schools require transferees to start over. UA has already spent almost three years in UP at that time so he deemed it best to transfer to a law school that admits transferees without requiring them to start over. He then had a choice between FEU and Arellano but chose the former in view of its more convenient location.

He enrolled at FEU Institute of Law on November 11, 2011. After his first semester, he became a Dean's Lister and was the only scholar of the whole institute for that particular sem. He remained in the Dean's List the following sem. However, UA's health was at such terrible condition on his third semester that his parents advised him to transfer to a local university.

It was against his will to transfer to a local university but felt that it will maintain the status quo in the family so he decided to follow his parents' will.

At present, UA is still finishing bachelor of laws at Aquinas University College of Law, expected to graduate in 2015. He is also active in a civic organization, the AlterNation Movement. On his free time, he is active at skyscrapercity.com to discuss economic and development issues pertaining to Albay province. His username in that site is Mintt.

Quote for the Day

1 September 2013

"The best way to defend a grammatically wrong-statement is to say that you've just used a rhetorical device."

9 September 2013

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

W.B Yeats, The Second Coming

25 February 2014

"Handog ng Pilipino sa mundo, mapayapang paraang pagbabago. Katotohanan, kalayaan, katarungan ay kayang makamit na walang dahas. Basta't magkaisa tayong lahat."

Jim Paredes (originally wrote on February 25, 1986)

1 May 2014

"Do not put words into the mouth of a mute!"

-spoken to a person who keeps on giving malicious meanings to an otherwise harmless statement.

Quotes dated prior to May 1, 2014 were all retrieved from timeline. Unnamed quotes were written by myself.