SIR ACE | L. ARCH. HORACIO “ACE” DIMANLIG

A SELFIE WITH A TRULY GREAT MAN AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. HE WAS MY VERY FIRST MENTOR. I LEARNED THE INS AND OUTS OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE THROUGH HIM. AND REMEMBER THAT OLD Philippine fifty-peso note? sir ace was the one who drew the national museum at the back of the bill and every time i had my hands on a “singkwenta” i would think of him.

early on, we had the chance to exchange plenty of wonderful stories during our car rides to and from meetings. the sketching, the problem solving, the love of the craft – these all began when i trained under one of the pioneers of the landscape architecture profession in the philippines. when we recently saw each other at a seminar in the university of the philippines, naturally, we got right back to storytelling.

we reminisced about our past projects and the days when we would draft and render directly on illustration boards. i vividly remember the time when i applied for a job with sir ace. i was still a student in up. we were at pier one in boracay for a quick site visit. in the middle of loud music and a couple of beers i leaned over and said to him, “sir, kahit hindi ninyo po ako bayaran…magtratrabaho po ako sa inyo…maturuan ninyo lang po ako.” he looked at me and said, “ok, i’ll take you in.” OF COURSE I GOT PAID, STILL, THE LESSONS I LEARNED FROM ONE OF MY BEST TEACHERS WAS AND IS THE BEST PART OF THAT WHOLE EXPERIENCE. IT’S IRREPLACEABLE.

THOSE WERE HAPPY DAYS WHEN I FIRST STARTED MY CAREER ALL THOSE SEASONS AGO. I WILL ALWAYS LOOK BACK ON THAT NIGHT ON THE BEACH OF AKLAN WITH GRATITUDE.

THANK YOU, SIR ACE, FOR EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME. I WOULD NOT BE WHERE I AM WITHOUT YOUR WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE AND GOOD HEART. UNTIL OUR NEXT CHAT SESSION! CHEERS!

– L. Arch. AJ Moldez