[2] While studying at the La Trinidad Agricultural School, his passion towards mechanics caught the attention of his American teacher James Wright, who convinced him to start a business in transportation and helped him buy five dilapidated vehicles from a garage owner in La Trinidad which became the nucleus[2] of the firm he founded, the Dangwa Transportation Company, which was incorporated in 1935.

[1] After borrowing P10 from a friend, Dangwa managed to repair his vehicles to serviceability, converting them into prototypes of the jeepney which plied the La Trinidad-Baguio route.

His business soon prospered, and by the eve of the Second World War, he had amassed a fleet of 173 buses carrying passengers and cargo and plying routes across the historic Mountain Province and into Manila.

[1] Dangwa became the last appointed Governor of Benguet after being chosen by President Elpidio Quirino in 1953, and was retained by his successor, Ramon Magsaysay in 1954.

[4] The headquarters of the Philippine National Police in the Cordillera Administrative Region, located in La Trinidad, was renamed in his honor, from its former name of Camp Holmes.