Birth School Work Death

Cabring…

…is technically the second offspring in a brood of three. He became first in line when his brother died 1 year and 4 months after birth.

…was a toddler when Martial Law was declared in the Philippines.

…was the Salutatorian of his Prep Class in LSM.

…was a consistent honor student during his elementary years. He thought something was up when teachers almost always fielded him in declamation and essay writing contests.

…was in grade three when he won his first singing contest. He sang Rico Puno’s “Buhat” and he’s VERY thankful that portable video cams weren’t available yet at the time.

…was accelerated to 1st year high school from grade 6 and lost a lot of friends from his original batch as a result. If he had known, he probably would’ve flunked it.

…lost his father just before starting high school. No, his father didn’t die (just ran off to the US with a village bicycle named Linda). His odd mother saw him and his sister through college by taking on odd jobs and eventually became really odd later on.

…transformed into a proud underachiever in high school. During his second year, he was sent to a guidance program in some Batangas resort with a bunch of other underachieving batchmates. When told they could do anything they wanted, his batchmates smoked pot, drank alcohol, and bared their souls to the counselors. Cabring learned to smoke.

…held the record for most number of tardies in a single year when he graduated from high school.

…was accepted into the Veterinary Medicine program of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. After one year, he shifted to the Agri-Business program because he couldn’t stomach the smell of dead cats, dogs, and sharks in higher Zoology subjects.

…was part of the 1986 EDSA crowd in front of Camp Crame.

…discovered that he could belt and distort his voice to almost inhuman extremes.

…left UPLB after five years. He was still a sophomore in terms of units earned and he just had to go before he ensured the death of his future.

…formed Datu’s Tribe in the same year he left Los Baños.

…shifted to the Secondary Education program in UP DIliman.

…finally graduated after two relatively academically-disciplined years. He was hired by his alma mater as a high school English instructor at the UP Integrated School, the basic education laboratory school under the College of Education.

…taught 1st and 2nd year high school kids from UPIS Batches 1995 and 1996 during his first year as a professional teacher.

…got his first car in 1993. It was a gift from his father (though it might also have been a bribe so that Cabring wouldn’t kill him in case he ever set foot in the Philippines again.)

…left UPIS after two years and went on to teach first and second year students at Colegio San Agustin from 1993-1995.

…began to take his music more seriously by the early ’90s especially when things began to look up for the band. Regular nighttime gigs began to affect his punctuality, but in spite of steadily mounting tardies, the kids still adored him for being a kick-ass teacher. 😀

…and his girlfriend were typical Catholic school-repressed middle class intellectuals who weren’t too hot on the use of contraceptives. After accidentally getting impregnated with Cabring’s “man-seed” in 1993, his hot concubine gave birth to their first child in 1994.

…gained loving but obsessive-compulsive control freaks for in-laws.

…left teaching in 1995 to pursue his music career full-time. Universal Records took in his band and released their debut album, “Galit Kami sa Baboy” (We Hate Pigs) in the same year.

…toured the country extensively from 1995 to 1998. His band quickly gained a critical and controversial reputation for dishing out songs with acid socio-political content.

…dreaded turning 27 because it was the age when a lot of famous musicians either committed suicide or died accidental deaths. He had weird mixed feelings when nothing happened.

…started pursuing a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Communication in 1997.

…left the music scene in 1998 when Datu’s Tribe became a casualty of the inevitable consumer backlash caused by the massive commercial exploitation of “alternative” rock music.

…went back to teaching in 1999, again in UP Integrated School, where he would stay on as an instructor for five more years. His best years were spent as faculty adviser to the Kamag-Aral 7-10 (the UPIS Student Council).

…and his wife had their second child in 1999. The new daughter was the result of faulty contraceptive use.

…left UPIS in 2004 to set up a business that would disintegrate after two years.

…began to re-form Datu’s Tribe in 2004 with new members.

…and his wife had another child in 2005. The little boy was another result of faulty contraceptive use.

…began to take music seriously again. Datu’s Tribe eventually released an EP (Fat Burner) on April Fool’s Day of 2005. The long overdue 2nd full-length album, “Whoa! Pilipinas!” followed on October 2007.

…was soon back in the (now more subdued) spotlight as he found his “old school” band’s reputation intact. But since most people in the Philippines are more inclined towards “happy”

music, not much really changed for the band in terms of financial rewards (to which Datu’s Tribe does not give a shit.)

…became more involved in various advocacies as a result of his band’s new and renewed output. They soon became regular performers in concerts supporting Human Rights, Justice, Education, Social and Political Reform, Genuine National Development, and Environmental Awareness.

…has gone into part-time teaching in colleges and universities since going back to music because the more accommodating work schedule made gigging more viable. He plans to record new material this 2009.

…has since reconciled with his father (more or less) and has found peace with his mother through the magic of dedmahan.

…and his wife have been married for more than 15 years and have kick-ass kids who plan to torture them in their old age by forming their own respective rock bands.

…hates the local music scene’s disrespectful tradition of ignoring and/or discarding aging rockers, so he’s probably going to give his band a couple more years at most. He plans to move on to Film afterwards.

The title of this page was taken from the Godfathers’ 1988 album of the same name. Cabring is still alive, though.

😈

Professional Photo Credits:  Rain Contreras / Eric Fernandez / Eddie Boy Escudero / Ralph Eya

(Family pics from the Cruz-Cabrera estate =)