AJ Matela
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[edit] General
Ariel James "AJ" Matela is a twenty-something gay urbanite living in Makati City, Philippines. Owner and Author of the Bakla Ako, May Reklamo Blog, AJ dreams of that day when gay and lesbian rights are respected and protected by laws of the Philippines. In his blog, AJ aims to educate the general public - straight or otherwise - about the nature of the lives, lifestyle, and culture of gay men.
[edit] Family
AJ was born in Davao City on September 10, 1982 to Candido Josol Matela and Anne Papas Avelino. He is the youngest among five siblings: Emmanuel, Vernie Rose, Eric John, and Ronald Jay. AJ considers himself to be a lucky baby, and he owes his life to an unnamed nurse who talked his mom out of getting a tubal ligation.
[edit] Education
AJ finished his primary education at St. Francis Xavier, LC in Skyline, Davao City - graduating with honors (First Honorable Mention).
Secondary education for AJ was quite an experience. He went to three different schools across the country. He spent his freshman high school year at the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP), in Bo. Obrero, Davao City. He then moved to the Davao City National High school for his sophomore year. At the end of that year's term, AJ's family moved to Pasig, Metro Manila, where he got enrolled as a Junior. Due to late enrollment and unwillingness of other schools to accept late enrollees, AJ got stuck in a small private school with a funny name: Little Lambs Learning Center. His senior year was also spent in that same school and he graduated 2nd Honorable Mention and with awards like Outstanding Performance in Mathematics, CAT Cadet Private of the Year, Outstanding Performance in English, among others.
The University of the Philippines System was the only university that AJ wanted to go to for college. He was particularly interested in studying at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao, which was established in 1996. In 1997, AJ took the UP College Aptitude Test (UPCAT) aand specified Mindanao as his primary choice of campus with Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics as his first choice for his degree. In 1998, AJ moved back to his hometown of Davao to start what could be the most life-altering, exciting, and enjoyable years of his life. UP Mindanao was where AJ transformed from a shy but talkative boy to a sociable, eloquent, and confident young man. On his supposed junior year, AJ shifted to a newly-offered degree offering - Communication Arts and majored in Speech Communication. He was a member and ranking officer of various student organizations in different fields including mountaineering, theater, a society of bibliophiles, the university debating varsity, the men's soccer varsity team, and others. He was one of the pioneering members of Communicators' Guild - an organization of UP Mindanao Communication Arts students.
AJ was also active in the student body as he was involved in various organizations and activities that aimed to serve the students. In the year 2000, AJ became Features Editor of Himati, the Official Student Publication of UP Mindanao. In the following year, he ran for a Councilor post of the UP Mindanao University Student Council and garnered the most votes among all the candidates. After his term as USC Councilor, he applied for the editorship post of Himati. On his final year at the university, AJ landed his dream post in the university - the editor-in-chief of Himati.
[edit] Employment
AJ first landed a job as a dining assistant at a local cafe, but lasted only ten days there.
In 2000, AJ became an Official Student Correspondent of Chalk - a college-oriented magazine published by ABS-CBN Publishing. From 2001 to 2003, AJ also became part of the pioneering batch of Campus Patrolers for local radio station Killer Bee 89.1 (DXBE FM). It was also during this period that AJ did his internships with various institutions in the Tri-Media (TV, Radio, Print). He did a few on-cam reports for ABS-CBN TV 4 Davao's TV Patrol Southern Mindanao, in the vernacular of Cebuano. After a two-month stint with news, AJ asked to be transferred to the local TV Production/Entertainment Department where he worked on variety shows, magazine shows, and other entertainment productions of ABS-CBN Davao. He did his radio internship for Killer Bee FM. For his theater internship, AJ worked almost full-time as a production assistant for local theater group Lu Chin Bon Performing Arts Center (LCB-PAC). There, did backstage and onstage work. He appeared in about five cameo appearances in the 2002 run of Davao's first off-Broadway musical, Rico - Ang Batang Kalye. In 2002, AJ went to Metro Manila for his print internship - with Chalk Magazine.
In 2003, AJ became the first male graduate of the Comm Arts degree program of UP Mindanao. He then moved back to Metro Manila to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. In June 2003, AJ was offered a job as a Road Manager for a then-unknown acoustic group called Nyoy Volante and Mannos. He left the group at the height of their fame in June 2004.
In August 2004, AJ started working as a technical support representative for one of the numerous call centers in the Philippines. Unwilling to pursue a career in the call center and outsourcing industry, AJ gave himself an ultimatum of three months. If nothing was gonna happen to him in that company in three months, he would resign and never work for the same industry, ever. A week before his ultimatum was due, he was promoted to American Accent and Product Trainer. He gave himself another year for another promotion. He did not wait that long because in seven months, he was promoted to the current position he is holding.
AJ is currently employed as a Training Development Coordinator for an American call center. He analyzes, designs, develops, implements, and evaluates training materials on American Accent Training and Client-specific product and software training for their company's call centers in the Philippines and in the US.
