I'd used COBOL programming language using IBM PC/XT micro computer, IBM System/36 mini computer and IBM AS/400 mini computer. I continued my study in Bachelor of Science in Information and Computer Science at the Cebu Central Colleges.  I quit studying after a year cause I found it hard for myself to be a working student and my salary then was not enough to sustain my studying. Year 1989, my sister, my uncle, and I decided to stay in one place but a few months later came a dispute between my uncle and my sister.  The two of them always came late at night after office hours and going with their own friends during week-ends leaving me alone and tedious on that house. So I decided to look for my own friends too, so then the three of us where always out of that house. A friend of my wife's friend came to introduce her to me and she fell in love to me, even though I really don't like her, I decided to stay with her rather than to my relatives, cause I felt happy with her.  My sister then told my mother about this and they made a plan to separate me with that girl. My mother came to visit us in Cebu and offer me to study in Manila.  Since I really want to have a college degree, I resigned in Gaisano and went to Manila with my mother.  I enrolled in National College of Business and Arts and took a new course whitch is Bachelor of Science in Computer Management.  Two years later during my studies, I heard my father complaining about the expenses of educating my two younger sisters and I saying "I can't afford to pay you this...I can't afford to buy you that... because I got two children studying and Cesar got a high tuition fee".  I felt that, I should stop, and let my two younger sisters continue their study.  I don't want to be dispute at home doing nothing so I decided to look for a job.  During the early 90's most companies used X-BASE language.  The most common are: dBASE, Foxbase, and FoxPro.  COBOL during that time was very rare only big companies using mainframes and mini computers are using it and their qualification never match in terms of my academic.  What I did is to study dBase programming at Data Master Computer Training Center for one month.  I found it easy like BASIC language, consequently I got  a remarkable grade and that's the beginning of my career as an x-base programmer.

 

      The owner of Data Master offered me a job as an instructor and I grab that opportunity, then after a month I was hired by DATACOM Inc. giving me higher compensation.  I worked as a Foxbase, Foxpro and Clipper programmer.  I was also given a task to be an instructor for dBase programming.  I stayed there for almost two years before I got a job offer from abroad (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). I worked in Saleh Al-Askar trading and Establishment as a foxpro programmer using IBM-AT 80286 compatible computer and when I've done for about 70% of my program, I was asked to do encoding and present to the management the actual Inventory Reports.  They gave me a deadline for it, I worked hard to catch it and concentrate as a data encoder I set aside my pending programs, I handled document, receipts, invoices, etc. feeding them using my program.  The deadline came and my egyptian boss was asking for my reports but I got nothing to present.  The data in manual process did not match with the output of my program, cause there might be some data not yet coded.  My boss and I came into an arguement, and one thing I asked them is to give me an assitant or a data encoder but they oppose on it, so I quit by telling them "I can't handle it".  I did not work from that day on, even though they asked me to return back.  I buy my own plane ticket and left that country.  A co-incident came when I arrive in Ninoy Aquino International Airport, I was surprised when my parents told me that my sister will also arrive from Australia on that same date 14 December 1993.  At home, my sister and I, talk about a plan to established our own business a "Software provider" on which we named it "Sys-tech, The Software Specialist".  My sister was the one who finance that company and I will be the one to operate it or develop software programs, and sales will be handled by my father. The program I did was an Accounting system.  My father failed to market it so the business did not push through.  I did not accept any employment job even though there are some companies interested to hire me on that year 1994, instead I concentrated on our business.  After a year (that was 1995), I decided to mary my wife, I loosed hope in our business, cause its not earning an income, so I started sending my resume for an employment till I got PRIME Information Management Exponents Corporation (a software company) as a Clipper programmer. A year after (1996) I was promoted as a Systems Analyst Programmer. In 1997, PRIME have acquired a window-based project.  Our first plan was to write it in Delphi.  We were trained half of the course about Delphi cause the trainer we hired had gone for abroad.  A few days later my boss called me out to handle that project using Visual BASIC version 4 although I got no formal training on that, I accept the job.  Thru my little knowledge in Delphi about dragging the objects in a window form and by reading the on-line help, I easily learned how to make a program in Visual BASIC. From this stage, it started my career as a Visual BASIC programmer.