The author was born on June 11, 1956 at Kilangan, Pagalungan, Maguindanao, now the site of the famous

Malmar Irrigation Project. He finished

his primary education from Kilangan Primary School, elementary education from Pikit Central Elementary School, Class 1967 and secondary
education from Notre Dame of Pikit, Class 1971.

Due to the trouble brought about by the armed confrontation between the government and the MNLF forces in the 1970s, he was not able to
pursue his college education immediately after graduating from high school.

In 1979, when there was the opportunity to study in college, he enrolled at the University of Southern Mindanao where he was a recipient of
the Grant-in-Aid Scholarship program. He took up BS in Agricultural Engineering and graduated in 1984; took up his Masters in Public
Administration from the Mindanao State University and graduated in 1995, and his Doctoral Degree in Rural Development from USM where he
graduated in March 2006.

His first major break was in 1991 when he passed the screening and qualified to become the Regional Project Manager of the Local Government
Support Program funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. His stint with CIDA gave him the opportunity to study and
complete his Masters Degree in Public Administration in 1995 at MSU-Marawi City. After graduation, he served as part-time professor in the
Graduate School of the MSU-Maguindanao Campus for three years, that is from 1998 to 2001.

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He decided not to renew his contract with CIDA after it expired in 1996 and chose to work with consulting firms such as Consummate
Consultants based in Greenhills, Quezon City; Management and Business Efficiency Services based in Cotabato City; and PRODEV Consultants
based in Marawi City. He has extensive experience in organizational diagnosis, rural development planning, community organizing and
mobilization, and project development and management. In fitting recognition of these achievements, he was accorded by his alma mater,
University of Southern Mindanao, the prestigious “Most Outstanding Alumnus Award for Community Development” in October 2004.