Acknowledgement

I would like to thank God that created me with self-reliance. Because of Him I believed that I can finish this study. And with his persistent and deliberate entry into unfortunate events (that constantly happen to me) in order to influence situations and prevent adverse consequences, I did.

I would like to thank my parents, for nurturing me for twenty years without complaint and protest.

Thanks to Professor Artemio Buitre, for being a cool adviser. His constructive criticisms and two-thumbs-up-even-at-worse-situations gesture always motivates me to go beyond what I can perceive. Thanks would also go to Professor Maria Janet Recierdo, for trusting me her own dissertation, for serving as second adviser and a panel member at the same time.

I would like to thank our librarian, Ma.Victoria Olaguer and the geniuses that created internet, who helped me on gathering my literatures and analyzing my data.

I would like to thank my friends, who are able to stand by me with my nomadic lifestyle, on my improvements and downfalls. Thanks to Joanne Kristine Relleve and Demi marie Borja for letting me stay in their beds safe and warm at my vagabond nights. Also, thanks to Engineer-Teacher Caryl Silang for keeping me safe, warm and well-fed in her home at my other vagabond nights. Thanks to Marijoy Magdato for simply being there and not talking at all when everybody seems so loud and out of control. Special thanks would go to Marianne-France Buela, Al Francis Grona and Maria Cecilia Hular, when I’m with them I feel less guilty because they are good procrastinators as I am. Both of them will always be my favorite college buddies. To Dyan Dycoco, Chester Arlan Lopez, Dennis Loterte and Mark Lester Llana; for giving happy rhythm in my life like they do in Karaoke Days. And to all the people I can’t mention here, by taking and posting pictures of the world in different perspectives over the internet or posting random thoughts in Facebook, to the nameless strangers, who have inspired me every day in some ways they are not even aware, thank you.

And for bringing out the best in me, for immensely widening my perspective in life, for being my pseudo-adviser, my statistician, my editor, my thesis partner, my personal hero, my buffer, my best friend, for being the unstoppable force that gives meaning and direction to my verve, like all the other literatures I have written, this one is for you Jen Arbo.