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Jarvis John Luga Surriga

Jarvis graduated from University of Negros Occidental Recoletos with a BS in Medical Technology. He placed 15 when he took the Medical Board Examination in 1992. He worked for a few years in Bacolod as a Medical Tehnologist and also teached 3 semesters in UNO-R and thereafter decided to move to Manila.

While in Manila, he was accepted at UP-Manila for Post Graduate Training. After his training , he worked for UP-PGH as a Blood Bank Medical Technologist II and while working, he took spanish courses at Instituto Cervantes and german at Goethe Institut. He finished Nivel Intermedio ( Intermediate Spanish ) and Deutsch Mittelstuffe ( Intermediate German ).

In June 2000 he applied for a job in the United Statesand left for Colorado in Nov 2000.

He worked there for eight years as Med Tech and later as Lead Blood Bank Technologist. While in Colorado he enrolled in an online MA degree in Occupational and Public Health, which he almost finished pending thesis. He also finished his spanish studies online with Instituto Cervantes New Mexico and got my Diploma de Espanol Como Lengua Extranjera Nivel Superior. During his spare time, he volunteers for the Immigrant Resource Center as ESL ( English as a Second Language ) instructor. He teaches mexican and guatemalan immigrants english and in the process improved his spanish.

In June of 2008 his green card was approved, which made him decide to move to Florida where the weather is like the Philippines where he works for two hospitals, as evening and night shift supervisor for Charlotte Regional Medical Center ( Punta Gorda ) during the weekends and part time senior Technologist at Fawcett Memorial Hospital ( Port Charlotte ). He still do freelance translation whenever requested, the hospital often calls him to translate for patients.

General Mateo Noriel Luga is the father of his grandmother Pilar Luga Surriga. Pilar had three children, Eugenio, Juanito ( my father) and Luz. His father Juanito Luga Surriga, who died in August 1988, was married to Elvira Delano Arias and bore four children, Paul Juel, Maria Cecilia, Maria Penelope and Jarvis John, the youngest among the four.

The Book Launching

February 2010 shall be a grand reunion for all the clan members worldwide! We are also intending to launch the above book containing historical events participated into by the members of the Luga Clan, mostly consisting of ranking military officers and government officials, which can now be made public.

FAREWELL PRES. CORAZON C. AQUINO

The 1983 assassination of Benigno Aquino ignited the unification of the people's sentiment for a change of leadership in government. With the popularity of his leadership in question, and his failing health, President Ferdinand E. Marcos was forced to call a a snap election in 1986, which resulted to series of event until he was eventually sent to Hawaii by the Americans upon the request of the Revolutionary Government of Corazon C. Aquino to evit bloodshed between the faction loyal to President Marcos and the Revolutionary government. We witnessed a peaceful revolution. President Corazon C. Aquino, became an icon of change through peaceful means. She became the uniting figure of the opposition that gave courage for the people to express their discontent. She made a difference.

With the Marcoses was Jovencio "Ven Agul" Luga of the Presidential Security Command. Loyal to his oath to protect the Presidency, "Ven Agul Luga" served well President Ferdinand E. Marcos until he died. While those left continued to serve the national interest under the administration of President Corazon C. Aquino.

It was a privilege serving the officials of the government under President Corazon C. Aquino at its most dangerous time at the height of the bloodiest 1989 coup d' etat - THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE 1989 COUP D' ETAT (double click here to know) .

GEN. MATEO NORIEL LUGA HONORED BY PGMA

GEN. MATEO NORIEL LUGA was honored by the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

While we honor our dead, we salute the living who continues the struggle to realize the vision of our past and present day heroes.

Right after he took his oath of office as Chairman of the Civil Service Commisison, Honorable Ricardo L. Saludo established the PAMANANG LINGKOD BAYAN AND SCHOLARSHIP FUND and among its first recipients allegedly being considered for the grant were the dependents of those who died in a chopper accident at Ifugao to inaugurate a major road project, which shall benefit the Cordillerans, a second home to Gen. Victor Luga and a home to the Baguilats and the Brawners. The project shall provide access road for the agricultural products from CAR and other which were produced as a result of the government’s peace effort initiated by the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process (OPAPP), when Usec. Nonoy Catura and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita were still at OPAPP.

Press Secretary Cerg Remonde, a fellow Cebuano of General Emilio S. Luga, Jr., have this to say:

"Chairman Saludo has solid plans and strategies to realize his vision. His plans and strategies include the completion of the third phase of the salary standardization law, narrowing the gap between the salaries of government workers and those in the private sector, strengthening meritocracy in government and intelligently applying media and information and communications technologies to promote responsiveness, efficiency and integrity in government.

"While he has set grand aspirations for himself and the civil service, Chairman Saludo keeps his feet firmly on the ground. He knows that by himself, he can only do so much.

"Chairman Saludo acknowledges that alone, he cannot make all the changes in the age-old ways, structures, policies and practices in the Philippine civil service.

"This outlook is buoyed by his steadfast belief that there are many more like him in the over a million-person strong civil service, and the millions more outside the formal government structure, who share his vision and aspirations, and that given the opportunity, these like-minded individuals would move as one to make the vision of a MERCI-ful civil service a reality."

CSC Chairman Saludo is also one who stands on critical issues advocating for the protection of human rights, freedom of expression, equal access to public service and respect to human rights, a trait of our forefathers who wages honorable warfare, when he addressed the 60th Anniversary Celebration of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

In a less than a year in Office, the Salary Standardization Law III was passed into law and ready for implementation for all government workers to benefit this July.

Continuity of the government’s orderly function, regardless of politics is safe with Honorable CSC Chairman Ricardo L. Saludo at the helm of the Commission for the government to move forward as one, insulated from politics. The Honorable Chairman Saludo already proven his sincerity in a short span of his stay in office. He deserves the confirmation of the Commission on Appointment, were Senator Ping Lacson, also a PMAr is a member.

Meanwhile, Gen. Victor Luga shall be the guest speaker on the 75th Death Anniversary of Gen. Mateo Noriel Luga on 2010 at Tumauini, Isabela:

ANG PAGBABALIK

Sa taong 2010 ay ating gugunitain ang Ika-75 taong kamatayan ng isang katangi-tanging bayani sa larangan ng ating bansa. Isang bayaning namuno sa isang pinakamalaking tribu sa buong Cagayan Valley ang mga "Ibanag". Siya'y hindi nagpalit ng kanyang apelyedo, kultura at paniniwalang ang lahing Pilipino ay kayang alpasan ang mga dayuhang naghahari at nagdidikta ng landas ng lahing kayumanggi.

Si Mateo Noriel Luga kasama ng kanyang mga pinsan at iba't ibang tribu ng Cagayan na pinangungunahan ng "Ibanag" ay nagpasyang sumanib sa rebolusyon upang patalsikin ang nuo'y sumasakop sa ating bansa, ang mga dayuhang "Kastila". Matapos nating makamtan ang kalayaan, siya at ang kanyang dalawang pinsan ay pumalaot na muli patungong Bisaya upang itagtag ang pamahalaang Republika ng Pilipinas sa Cebu.

Hindi naglaon ay sumiklab ang digmaang Pilipino at Amerikano. Ang kanyang pamilya ay ginapos at ginawang sangkalan para siya'y manghina at sumuko. Nguni't imbis na manghina siya'y nagpasyang lusubin ang kutang Kano at sinagip ang kanyang mga minamahal sa buhay. Siya'y nagbalik na muli at nakipagdigma sa mga Amerikanong may mas malalakas na sandata at may mga barkong pangdigma sa patas na pamamaraan. Matapos ang pagsalakay, ang mga Amerikano na nuo'y pimamumunuan ni Admiral Dewey ay naglayag paalis ng Cebu. Si Admiral Dewey ay hindi na bumalik na muli sa Cebu mula nuon.

Pagkatpos ng giyerang Pilipino at Amerikano sa pagsuko ni Gen. Aguinaldo, siya'y hinirang bilang konstable upang tugisin ang mga masasamang loob sa Cebu. Siya'y nakaabot ng Mindanao sa pagtugis ng iba't ibat brigada ng masasamang loob. Ang Cebu ay naging isang mapayapang lugar sa kanyang pamumuno. Nguni't sa kadahilanang siya'y hindi sumasang-ayon sa mga polisiya ng di na-aangkop sa kanyang paniniwala bilang isang Pilipino, siya'y tumiwalag sa serbisyo at namuhay ng payapa bilang isang magsasaka kapiling ang kanyang pamilya sa Isla ng Negros.

Sa kanyang paglalakbay upang bumalik sa kanyang bayang sinilangan na matagal niya nang pina-nanabikan, siya'y binawian ng buhay sa Maynila. Hindi na siya naka-uwi sa Tumauini kung saan niya sinimulan ang kanyang pakikibaka. Ang kanyang labi hangang sa ngayon ay hindi pa matunton.

Bilang isang pagpupugay sa kanyang kadakilaan, nais naming ihandog ang "PAGBABALIK" kung saan nagsimula ang kanyang pakikidigma upang makamtan ang kalayaan na ating tinatamasa sa ngayon:

CARLA FONTANILLA

Carla with her Dad, Al Fontanilla, paid a visit at Caloocan City to rehearse on the songs she is about to sing in the TOLIBAS-MEJIA WEDDING VOW Ikaw, which was originally sung by Sharon Cuneta. The TOLIBAS-MEJIA WEDDING VOW is one of its kind in the sense that the family and friends of the of the Groom can witness the pre-nuptial shooting, the events as it unfolds before, during and after the wedding worldwide!

"Family life starts with a wedding. It is the family, which is the basic institution of our society, our country, and the world per se - it is the very institution that serves as the foundation towards the future of our children and of this nation - and it starts in a wedding ceremony. While others proposes by placing an Ads in billboards, announcing in public places and by other mode, Mendel and Jo-Ann displayed their love and affection before the whole world, by producing a film, uploaded in You Tube coupled with a blogsite - a truly Filipino tradition (in the modern setting) of reminiscing bonds between families who shall stood behind and shall support these couple, to lay another foundation for our breed to propagate and move on towards a better future . . ."

Who would ever imagine that the powerful voice you are hearing from Mendel and Jo-Ann's site comes from this 11-year old lady of about four feet in height. Carla is dedicating this song to Mendel and Jo-Ann, here with is "Ikaw" of Sharon Cuneta, interpreted by Carla LIVE!