Author’s Background

Allow me to address myself in the third person when discussing the author’s background. The author, Romeo B. Macale, is a Filipino-Australian citizen. His parents and friends call him by his nickname, “Romy.” He hailed from a low-income household (the lowest of the poor), but poverty did not stop him from pursuing a higher education. Romy was six years old when he learned to support his educational needs. When he was in first grade, he started rummaging around to make money. Romy collected and sold garbage, including empty bottles, broken glasses, and scrap metals such as copper wires and bronze. He sold paper bags in the wet market in Tacloban City, Philippines (in 1966), while still living with his parents. By God’s grace, Romy has been endowed with a mind that he can use and maximize to achieve his basic education (i.e., from Year 2 in primary school or Grade 2 in elementary school to secondary school) and university degrees. Romy’s parents could not afford to send him to school from second grade to the end of high school, so he had to leave his family to live and work with other families who could allow him to study and attend school during school hours. His responsibilities included cooking, washing dishes, cleaning the house, purchasing groceries, tutoring children, washing clothes, and performing physical and domestic tasks. In his senior year of high school, he was awarded four scholarships (NSS, NSDB, UP-GIA, and SNPLP) to cover the entire cost of his selected college or university. By God’s grace, he passed with flying colors on all counts. Unfortunately, he could only apply for one of the scholarship opportunities. As a result, he chose the NSDB (National Science Development Board, later dubbed NSTA and now called DOST) scholarship because it provided the most money for tuition and personal living expenses. Finally, in March 1979, the impoverished child graduated from high school as a salutatorian.

After high school, he attended the University of the Philippines (UP) for two weeks. He then withdrew from UP due to a low financial grant accompanying the UP scholarship. He returned to his former option, the NSDB scholarship, which only provided one course: a bachelor’s degree in teaching, with Mathematics as his major and Physics as a minor at the now-defunct Divine Word University in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Education with God’s guidance. He started working as a mathematics teacher in a private secondary school right after graduation. At night, he pursued his childhood aspiration of earning a Bachelor of Laws degree. After his first year of Law, he took and passed the comprehensive examination required for admission to the University of the Philippines’ Master of Educational Administration program. By mid-year, he had started studying for the Master’s degree part-time on Saturdays while pursuing his Law degree on weeknights. Finally, with God’s help, Romy earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Laws in March 1987 and a Master of Management in Educational Administration the following year. He worked as a full-time mathematics teacher at secondary schools during his studies.

After ten years of teaching high school mathematics, Romy relocated to Australia as an Independent Visa teacher applicant. After three years of pursuing his immigration application, Australia gave him permanent status. He began to learn how to live like the locals. Romy applied for teaching jobs and a variety of odd jobs. He started his career in the timber manufacturing industry, where he worked for five years before transitioning to teaching in Australian government secondary schools. Romy has worked as an Australian Mathematics Teacher and Principal in private and public secondary schools for the past seventeen years. He has been writing books outside of school since 2000, totaling thirteen works to date. Romy began postgraduate study and research after starting teaching in 2000. By God’s grace, he acquired four doctorates: Doctor of Philosophy (Theology and Philosophy), Doctor of Education, Doctor of Theology, and Doctor of Ministry. He recently received the Doctor of Divinity degree (Honoris Causa). He is currently investigating his next two publications, “The Research Obsession: Doctoring Data Supporting Desired Results” and “From Parañaque to Plaza Miranda: History of Communism in the Philippines.”