About Me

A heart for peace

Hi there, everyone, and welcome to my space!!! I’m Charly. Born in May 1956, in the year of the monkey. In then rustic Tagbilaran, in the island of Bohol, Philippines.

I joined the military at the tender age of 17, way back in Apr 1, 1974, when I entered the Philippine Military Academy. I finally retired last May 2012, after spending 37 plus years of devoted service.

But I realized I am not through yet. I still have that burning passion to serve. After all, that is what I was trained to do – to serve. These blogs then are a hodgepodge of my past adventures from which I have learned plenty from; plus my present activities and my future plans, aspirations and dreams. Some of these blogs will be serious, some will be light. Each, I assure you, will have a story to tell.

I have lined up different categories that more or less tell you what really interests me most. I have a category for ‘Family’, which essentially will tell you about what’s been going on with my family and friends. I have a category on ‘Advocacies’, which focuses on my desire to continue to serve humanity. I believe in the adage: Stand up for what you think is right, even if it’s unpopular. Once in a while, I will make some noise on some issues I care about.

And then there’s the fun stuff. I have a category on ‘Sports’, which was my very first love. And of course, ‘Travel’, something I’ve been blessed to do in my years in the service and beyond. Later, I added up a new category on ‘Habitat’, which contained stories related with a line of work and passion with Habitat for Humanity Philippines.

The blogs you find here will be a hodge-podge of my experiences. Some of these blogs have been reprinted in such publications as Huffington Post UK, the Wall Street Journal, Rappler, the Bohol Chronicle, Sunstar Davao and Edge Davao. Please join me in this adventure. Perhaps you can help me uncover the hidden treasures and lessons in life that can gift us with more wisdom and enlightenment.

94 comments

  8. Congratulations, sir Charly! interesting and inspiring! I accidentally read your blog re: Gen. Carangan’s experience and I thought I remember the name of the blogger. Such a heart-breaking and at the same time, an inspiring story of survival…:)
    More power to you…

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      1. yes, sir, am well. hope you remember me, one of the psychologists in the army before. i am now with the university of makati as a professor. good to read your blogs and will be following them..lol. Godspeed!

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  10. yes, sir, am well. hope you remember me, one of the psychologists in the army before. i am now with the university of makati as a professor. good to read your blogs and will be following them..lol. Godspeed!

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    1. thanks for the follow. all she needs is to visit cbholganzablog.wordpress.com. there’s a button on the right side which you click if you want to be on the email list for all blogs i publish. that should do it, babes.

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    1. pleased to meet you too, gp. and i want you to know i admire the work you’re doing to keep the memories of your dad’s unit alive. such a labor of love indeed!

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  15. Sir, while leaving early tomorrow morning, my Hiroshima family and I (US) are on Leyte conducting a number of memorial services for our family WWII deaths – both American and Japanese. A very good friend and former USMC officer introduced me to your blog today.

    I hope to visit your blog upon my return to the US.

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      1. Good day, sir. I hope this note finds you well.
        While on Leyte, it became very clear to me that the entire island was a graveyard for both Allied and Japanese war deaths – plus countless numbers of Filipino civilian and guerrilla casualties. That saddened me greatly.
        As you may know, the US Army by 1944 had found it very necessary to bury war dead to protect their environment (e.g., keep decaying bodies from polluting water sources, etc.). The US Army engineers used bulldozers as you know to create mass graves for Japanese war dead if amassed in certain numbers. However, US Army Graves Registration procedures at that time did require them to at least document these sites on their maps. Would you know if this to be true on Leyte?
        Thank you.

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  17. Thanks for liking a post I made…and by return one is compelled to rerun the kindness and have a visit. Love the bio my fellow blogger and will now be looking forward to more journeys in your posts because…well, just gave to follow 🙃

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      1. Excellent to hear…cheerfulness I have decided is a free commodity and have sought further insight during a Kindness challenge hosted by another new and good friend Niki Lopez whose blog is linked on my posts of said task…if one can spread smiles then I consider everybody concerned has just found things not quite so bad as might have been otherwise…heads up, I am also fabled to rambling too…allegedly 🙃

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          1. That is good to know indeed…and coincidental with my new thoughts upon a ramble for this weeks kindness challenge…I fear topping my three previous weeks posts is proving terribly difficult. 🤔

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    1. Thanks too for dropping. Maybe you can help me with my fitness program. I’m diabetic and need help staying away from too much food. Haven’t been doing my exercises regularly as well. 🙄☹️😣😩 Need some motivation pls. 🙄😋😳

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      1. Not a problem at all, I enjoy your sports section! ha. I will be checking in with that. Hey! I would love to help keep you accountable or motivate you. I will start by saying “obstacles, do not disappear; they reproduce” so what I mean by this is, don’t assume that once you get through one obstacle, there is no longer anymore; always be prepared for the next one. 😛 Most people meet their goals and think “yay, I am done” but one is never done with meeting goals. The hardest goal to maintain is maintaining the win. I made that one up myself. Anywho, I would love to help encourage you 🙂

        Shay-lon

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          1. You are welcome, I am actually going to write that down, because I want to save it. LOL. You are the first person I have shared it with, so if it made sense to you, then I came up with something good.

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      1. My brother was stationed at Subic Bay in the early 70s when they meant, but I think she is from Mindanao, but I’m not positive. They live in San Diego, California.

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  22. Thank you for your tears of service, Charly.
    That passion to serve is the mark of a great character. My mother worked as a nurse all her life, nearly 50 years. Hard moments too, yet she enjoyed every minute of it.
    Glad to have discovered your blog.
    Best regards,
    Pat

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    1. Your mom most probably are in your thoughts more often, especially with today’s global trials. My best to her as well.
      Thanks for dropping by, Pat! You will find me nosing around your blog more often now. I love the old war stories and pics you have. I’ve always been crazy for military history.
      Stay safe now.

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      1. Thank you, Charly, Indeed, as if life wasn’t difficult enough. Perhaps it wasn’t (the pre-Covid 19 Era), but we looked at it and thought we had so much on our hands. Now only, do we appreciate how easy life was.

        Enjoy! I am always appreciative towards visitors and comments. You know how much work goes in a single blog post 🙂 I enjoyed writing each one of them.
        Kind thanks 🙂

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        1. it seems we have both bitten by the same writing bug. true, it takes much work creating one, but somehow it feels good to have contributed something that people will want to read. keep writing, pat. you put a smile all over the world with your notes. a breath of fresh air is what you create. thank you so much.
          i read your intro to “Silent Heroes”. Couldn’t put it down. Gripping, heartbreaking, got me glued to my seat. i will make sure to read it, Pat.

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    1. Hi, Dilip! And thanks for dropping by. i too will be exploring your blog more often. india has always been one of the places in my bucket list. i hope to be able to visit once this pandemic is done.

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    1. thank you so much, Dedi! i too am frquenting your blog. saya berharap untuk belajar lebih banyak tentang negara Anda yang indah. kami memiliki begitu banyak kesamaan dalam budaya dan ras.

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