Cover and opening page of APO Hiking Society book
From the author’s remarks given during the launch of ‘APO Hiking Society: Limampung Dekada nAPO Kami’ on Aug. 7, 2025
When Jim Paredes, my kid brother, asked me to edit and produce the APO Hiking Society’s 50th anniversary book, I immediately said yes. I thought that having known him all my life and, Danny Javier and Boboy Garrovillo since they were in school, I had a handle on their lives and their career. It should be an easy walk. After all, I knew them so well.
But as soon as I said yes, I realized the enormity of documenting a career spanning 50 years, involving three diverse characters with their ups and downs, in a 200-page book. Besides, this was showbiz territory that I knew close to nothing about.
I would need back-up. A researcher, a graphic artist, writers! The first artist I contacted, an award-winning book designer, had exciting ideas—young and hip—that I thought a showbiz kind of book would need. However, he quickly disappeared after accepting a downpayment.
Finding a researcher was even more daunting. Who was young enough to dig into 50 years of files and photographs, but old enough to appreciate the history and context of the APO’s significance as songwriters and performers? And who would accept such an assignment? I ditched the idea of a researcher.
Jim found his wife Lydia’s file of newspaper clippings from the ‘70s and ’80s, and Boboy sent me a balikbayan box of magazines, posters, t-shirts and random pictures, mostly snapshots—faded low-resolution photographs from a by-gone era that chronicled their career. Betta Dans, the APO’s manager, promised to search her attic and garage for APO memorabilia.
After flailing about for a month or two, wondering how to proceed, I called my go-to graphic artist with whom I have worked on a magazine and two handsome coffeetable books that we edited, designed and produced together, working purely on-line, during the pandemic.
The author (far left) and artist Mai Ylagan with Boboy Garrovillo (second from left) and Jim Paredes
Mai Ylagan is creative and collaborative, a techie, and a certified APO fan. Best of all, she is a musician—she once played bass in a girl band—and she could talk about music with Jim and Boboy. We took on this journey, giving ourselves a year to get the book out, without really knowing how and where to go with it.
There were no organized files of the APO’s 50 years…. The guys built a career with scant attention to documentation
Mai and I met every few weeks to brainstorm. There were no organized files of the APO’s 50 years together. The guys built a career with scant attention to documentation. The photographs were mostly snapshots preserved behind plastic sheets in albums, or taken with cellphones, which were not exactly fit for printing.
The clippings were media write-ups that told the same story of how the three of them met, their enduring friendship, their idiosyncrasies, their cheeky humor, their fearless social commentary. I was not about to follow that path. I wanted to present the APO as I know them—as real people, with warts and all.
I was overwhelmed, until I calmed down and analyzed the situation. I realized that the APO’s 50 years together could be neatly divided into decades – from the Sixties when they were in high school and the founding of the Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society; the Seventies when they broke into show business with a farewell concert at the Meralco Theater that opened the doors for them to show business; the Eighties that brought them a larger audience, when they rose to the challenge of the EDSA revolution; and the Nineties when they reaped the harvest, financially and career-wise, but endured what became a soul-deadening decade hosting a noontime television show.
The new millennium brought new realities —the entry of new bands with new sounds, and Danny’s dwindling interest in performing until he finally split from the group in 2010, and the APO held their second farewell concert at the Music Museum.
Another decade would pass before Danny passed away (2022), and Jim and Boboy made a comeback via their historic 50th anniversary concert at the Areté in July 2023.
The book morphed as we went along. The APO did not flourish in a vacuum. They are the sum of the experiences of several generations in the past 50 years. To give their story some historical context, we assigned name writers to submit essays describing the decades that nurtured the APO’s growth and development. Jim and Boboy wrote the later chapters about loss and redemption that only they could.
They also wrote about their experiences on the road, from hungry singers who would do anything for a gig to the polished performers they have become, doing gigs around the country and abroad. Jim and Boboy also wrote about each other and Danny, and their late manager, Butch Dans (Jim’s tribute to Danny is particularly heart-wrenching), and a lavish tribute to the musicians they have worked with through the decades.
To complete the coverage, the book pays tribute to the costume designers who developed the APO look. The book includes an annotated discography of the APO’s 29 albums, and lyrics of the APO’s favorites tunes. As added bonus, it includes QR codes so the reader can listen to the APO’s albums while going through the book.
Somehow, we managed to chronicle the APO’s 50 years using thousands of pictures that emerged during production, again by the decades. Many pictures from the early years are low res, but what the heck, that’s what pictures looked like in the Fifties and Sixties, and they are part of the APO’s story.
The last step was to get the book registered at the National Library—ISBN and barcode— which was made possible by Andrea Pasion Flores of Milflores Publishing who graciously agreed to be the publisher of this book at the very last minute, thus making its publication official and legit.
There were definitely moments of frustration—the guys could be so laid back—but we managed to put the book together, with Jim and Boboy, their wives and managers taking directions from Mai and me. They wrote their essays, uncovered files, unearthed pictures, and generally met their deadlines. Together, we managed to package the APO story and Jim, Danny and Boboy as they are—not as celebrities despite the glitz, but as real people, the kid brothers I’ve known since they were in high school, over 50 years ago.
For copies of APO Hiking Society: Limampung Dekada nAPO Kami, please call Jenny 09063157199 or Ollie 09168554303.
