Village’s honor students to get real gold medals despite high cost

MONKAYO, Compostela Valley, Philippines—Despite the skyrocketing price of gold and the scarcity of donors, the awarding of real gold medals to honor students in the impoverished village of  Diwalwal here will continue this year, village officials said.

Councilor Bonifacio Libres said among the steps they would take to ensure the nine-year tradition lives on is to reduce the number of medals to be awarded.

“You see, we are facing hard times here. Donations of gold nuggets are slow. Prices of gold are up but production in the mines is low,” he said, noting that a gram of the precious yellow metal fetches P2,000.

Started nine years ago by the village’s former head, Francisco “Franco” Tito, the awarding of pure gold weighing 10 grams each is aimed at motivating students to be achievers.

Libres would not say, however, how many medals will be awarded this year. Since the practice started in 2003, 10 medals had been given annually: one for the top student in each grade from  elementary to high school.

Rodolfo Boyles, the current Diwalwal village head, said that despite the smaller number of medals to be given what is important is “the tradition of gold medal-giving would stay.”

Jojo Diosala, Diwalwal village secretary, said village officials were also thinking of passing an ordinance that would prevent the medals from falling into the hands of persons they were not intended for. He said council members have found out that some parents have pawned or sold the gold gold medals awarded to their children.

“We conducted an inventory of the awarded medals and found out that majority of the recipients no longer have the medals in their possession,” he said. “What’s worse is many of the tokens have ended up in the hands of gold buyers at very low prices and have been melted. The medals have lost their value.”

Twenty-two-year old Marie Apple Lacerna, who received a total of four gold medals since 2004, said financial difficulties had forced her parents to pawn her medals for about P3,000 each, less than a fourth of their real value.

They have not been able to redeem the medals, said Lacerna, who now works in retail store in her village.

Another gold medal recipient, Aileen Barte, 21, sold her 2005 award for just over a thousand pesos.

“My mother had the medal melted and sold. I used the money to buy my uniform for the second year,” said Barte, who completed high school without honors.

Financial difficulties also drove Jowalnie Bangcola’s mother to sell off two of her medals. The daughter of a Muslim trader, Jowalnie has been a consistent honor student since elementary and is one of those expected to graduate valedictorian from high school this year.

“We used to be well-off as we owned a ball mill (a gold ore-crushing facility), a store and other businesses here. But when Papa got sick last year, those businesses soon crumbled. Mama was forced to sell even my medals and that of my brother’s to help pay Papa’s hospital bills,”  the 16-year-old girl said.

Despite their efforts, Jowalnie’s father succumbed to complications of diabetes.

“If we only had another choice, I would not let my mother sell the medals. Those were very meaningful to me,” she said.

Boyles said the village would set up a fund  to “buy back” medals from their cash-strapped holders.

“It’s heartbreaking to hear stories about the medals being melted and sold. Although we understand that poverty forced them to do it, they should have at least informed us. They could have sold the medals to us instead,” Boyles said.

Besides, the medals can be reused, which would solve the growing problem on base material, he said.

Diosala said the council was also looking into the possibility of crafting an ordinance that would penalize parents who would have the medals melted without the council’s permission.