More than 1,000 Senior High School and College graduates attended the recently concluded recognition day for Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries who finished secondary and tertiary education this year. These graduates mainly come from the National Capital Region and representatives from the other 16 regions across the country.

The event was dubbed as “Araw ng Pagkilala 2018” was held on May 07, 2018 at SM City North EDSA Skydome, Quezon City, Metro Manila. The objective of the activity aims to celebrate the milestones of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in its education component by highlighting the accomplishments of its graduates.

Anchored by the theme “Itawid ang kabataan sa mas maunlad na kinabukasan,” the activity provided an avenue where graduates shared their stories of inspiration in their journey to success. Moreover, the activity also provided the participants technical know-how to secure an employment and introduced them to various opportunities to sustain their gains.

Aside from the DSWD dignitaries, also present during the event were CHED Commissioner Ronald L. Adamat, Ph. D., Unifast Deputy Executive Director Nicholas Tenazas, TESDA Supervising TES Specialist Juan Asuncion, DOLE’s Career Guidance Advocacy Program (CGAP) Mr. Nick D. Romano, and beauty queens/social welfare advocates Ms. Nicole Cordoves and Ms. Catriona Gray.

Region IX was represented by Senior High School graduate Marie Therese V. Medallo (With Honors) from Regional Science High School and ESGP-PA grantee Eujean F. Dotusme (Academic Awardee) from Western Mindanao State University.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to represent our Region for “Araw ng Pagkilala 2018”. It was a noble history for the DSWD as they successfully fulfilled the aim of providing education for poor Filipino students. Kaya laking pasasalamat ko po sa programang hatid ng DSWD at maging ang mga partner agencies nito upang ituwid ang mga kabataan tungo sa maunlad na kinabukasan. Ang mga kwento ng buhay ng mga representatives ng bawat rehiyon ay isang inspirasyon sa bawat isa,” Eujean Dotusme, ESGP-PA grantee, said.

Dotusme led the ceremonial pledge entitled Panunumpa sa Pangarap together with the regional representative of Region 10 during the event.

Medallo and Dotusme are both academically outstanding in their respective alma maters. Medallo graduated with honours while  Dotusme was a Dean’s

Lister and a recipient of several awards such as Proficiency in Student Teaching (Gold), Leadership Award (Gold), and Service Award-Gold.

This year, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program will have the first batch of Senior High graduates under the K-12 Program and the last batch of college graduates under the Expanded Students’ Grant-in Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA). More or less 200,000 program beneficiaries graduated in Senior High School and 30,000 ESGP-PA grantees finished a college degree.