Studying in prov’l school didn’t faze CPA topnotcher

APOSTOL

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—As a college freshman five years ago, Jackson Apostol felt challenged whenever people expressed their dismay because he was studying in a provincial college and not in one of the leading universities in Metro Manila.

“Sayang ang galing mo (What a waste of your intelligence),” family friends often told him, aware of his potential to be an outstanding student, having graduated at the top of his class from Cagayan National High School in Tuguegarao City in 2008.

“It was as if they were saying that I could not get a good college education because I was not studying in Manila. Since then I promised myself that I would prove them wrong,” he said.

Apostol, 22, made true his promise on Monday by topping this year’s accountancy board examinations, besting almost 10,400 examinees from the country’s top universities.

A graduate of the University of Saint Louis of Tuguegarao (USLT) in Cagayan, Apostol obtained an average grade of 93.86 percent in the four-day examination that ran on Oct. 5, 6, 12 and 13.

“It is sad that some people entertain the notion that graduates of schools in the provinces are always inferior to those from the cities, especially Metro Manila. But I always tell them, ‘It is not about the place; it is about how [hard] you study,’” he said.

Like many topnotchers of professional examinations, Apostol did not see it coming. All he wanted, he said, was to pass the test for certified public accountants.

“Jax” to his friends and schoolmates, Apostol said he first heard the news on Monday morning when he received a barrage of congratulatory calls on his mobile phone.

“At first I did not believe them because I myself was checking on the Internet for the results and I did not find it. But more calls kept coming in, leading me to think that this could well be true,” he said.

He plans to start looking for a job—his first—at any private auditing firm in Metro Manila “when things have sunk in.”

The second of four siblings, Apostol, who in college continued to receive academic awards, first set himself to pursue a degree at either the University of the Philippines or Ateneo de Manila University that he could use to enter medical school. He hurdled the entrance examinations at both universities.

“It was really my earliest dream [to become a doctor], as I saw myself taking care of my parents when they get old. [And] I have ugly handwriting,” he told the Inquirer by phone on Monday.

But his parents were worried about the limited finances that they had to support him in Metro Manila, as well as his frail health.

It was his father, businessman Jacinto Apostol, who talked him into studying accountancy instead, said his mother, Elsie.

His father is preparing him to assume responsibility for the family’s small business—an automotive parts store and welding shop in Barangay (village) Buntun in Tuguegarao.

“I dedicate this achievement to God, first of all, then to my family. It was my faith in what God can do that served as my strength through the difficult times,” he said.