In
his teen years , Popong Landero sang his own songs, co-founded a music group
named Masang Himig, quit schooling and earned his basic survival means through
his musical talent. A singer with a mind of his own, he would insist on using
his left hand to write, to hold an axe, and to play his guitar,in spite of
his father's insistence early on that he eat with his right hand. It may have
been an awkward process but his music was never stunted. He would invert chordbooks
while he was still learning how to play the guitar. It was at this time that
he started gaining recognition in Davao as the " Kaliweteng Gitarista" (Lefty
Guitarist). That was in 1978.
Inspired by the burgeoning growth of what was then underground OPM, Popong
hied off to the big city-Manila >
