A native of Bato, Camarines Sur, Rio is the youngest of 14 children – seven full-blooded siblings, while the rest are half siblings. At nine months old, his mother left them and it was his father who raised the brood. Young Rio and his family moved to Manila where he continued his studies. He had to endure the daily two- to three-kilometer walk from their house in the slums to the school with only a one peso allowance and an occasional two peso bonus for every star he got from his teachers.
↧