[2] Acquiring the basic elementary education and known by his nickname "Noy Inting", he worked in sugar farms in the provincial towns of Cebu.
[3] Rubi is best known for composing the Kasadya Ning Taknaa (How Joyous This Season Is), a Christmas carol whose lyrics was written by his friend, Mariano Vestil.
[3] According to columnist Juan L. Mercado, the song was composed in 1933 after officials of the Cebu Christmas festival asked him to join the daygon (carol) songwriting contest, and the said composition won.
[3] In 1976, with the help of his lawyer Napoleon Rama, he filed a lawsuit to claim the unpaid royalties in Quezon City, but it was dismissed two months later because of his inability to travel due to lack of funds.
[7] The company also claimed that checks were made in his name;[4] however, they were not delivered because he moved to different addresses with his wife twice as he avoided staying with his children who had started their own families.
[4] As early as 1990, Napoleon Rama criticized the consideration of the Tagalog version, Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit, as an original composition and the absence of credit to Rubi and Vestil.
[9][5] Mercado wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that described Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit as the hijacked Tagalog version of Kasadya Ning Taknaa.