Cebu tops again! 12 grads in Top 10 in Chem Tech board

Board exam placers also credit their success to solid background on chemistry and love, passion for their field

Cebu is getting a windfall from the topnotchers it has been producing in the licensure exams given this year and last. In the October 2017 Chemical Licensure Examination, 12 graduates of the Cebu Institute of Technology-University, University of San Carlos and Cebu Normal University made it in the Top 10.

Licensed chemical engineers Joyce Marian Belonguel, Cladette Martinez and Janice Dinopol have been working as quality analysts for a beverage company for several years now.

Having been out of school for almost five years, they were not sure how they would fare when they take another board exam.

Though confident that they would pass the 2017 Chemical Technician Licensure Exam since they already passed the “more difficult” Chemical Engineering Board Exam, none of them expected to be among the 12 graduates of Cebu universities who would make it to the top 10.

“I already knew that many examinees would pass since it was tailored for old working professionals. That’s why I’m very proud to be among the top 10 since I’ve been out of school for four years now, and yet I still made it to the top 10,” Martinez, 26, said. She and Dinopol ranked seventh with a rating of 88.5 percent.

Martinez and Belonguel, both graduates of the University of San Carlos (USC), and Dinopol, a graduate of Mindanao State University in Marawi City, are colleagues at the Coca-Cola FEMSA Cebu Plant’s quality analysis department, where their task is to check the quality of all the company’s raw materials and products.

Even if they are already licensed chemical engineers, the three had to take the board exam for chemical technicians to be able to work as analysts in a laboratory, as required by Republic Act No. 10657 or the Chemistry Law of the Philippines.

The three passers credit their success to their study habits, their solid background ion chemistry and their love and passion for their field. They also would not have passed the exam if it weren’t for the constant guidance from God, they said.

“I just study whenever and wherever I can. I am currently working so I would study if I get some free time after or before work… I did not expect to be in the top 10 so I don’t exactly know what I did to land a spot. Maybe I was able to study enough and just believed that I can pass. Also, I think it’s through my faith and prayers,” Belonguel, 25, told SunStar Cebu. She ranked fourth with a 90 percent rating.

Dinopol, 26, said she counts herself blessed to be in the top 10 since she only asked to pass the exam.

“But God gave me more than what I prayed for. I really had a hard time managing my time due to my workload, but I went ahead and took the review with all my heart and asked for God’s guidance,” she said.

For Martinez, her review classes in USC also helped even if they were held only on Saturdays, since they can guide her and measure her performance.

All three plan to continue working in Coca-Cola, though Martinez said her long-term plan is to work abroad.

“That was also my motivation in reviewing properly. For me to be able to work abroad, I know I have to be globally competitive,” she said.

Other passers from Cebu who got the 10 highest scores are Diamond Jeff Romarate Paug of the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U), who ranked first with a passing rate of 92.5 percent; second placer Karlen Joseph De la Cruz of CIT-U with 91 percent; third placer Mark Ervin Ancot of USC with 90.5 percent; fourth placer Chad Monte Igot with 90 percent; fifth placer Rossano Balansag Bualat of CIT-U and Ruby Mae Salapi Mossot of USC with 89.50 percent.

Joselito Reyes Tumulak Jr. of Cebu Normal University also placed sixth with 89 percent.

Ronalyn Ibon Andagan of CNU and Marjon Tan Navida of USC shared the ninth spot with other passers with an 87.50 percent rating.