CCT boy strives to graduate from poverty

Jerome Tolibas, 16 yrs. old, Pantawid Pamilya beneficiary from Brgy. Salvador, Tanauan, Leyte, graduates as Class Valedictorian at Kiling National High School and receives numerous awards such as Academic Excellence Award of the Philippine Senate; Best in English, Science, and Mathematics; JCI Youth Leadership Award for being an outstanding Supreme Student Government President; An Waray Party List Leadership Excellence Award; and Pelagio Tecson, Sr. Academic Excellence Award, among others.

“An tuptop nga pag-eskwela an usa nga makakasalbar ha amon kakurian (Studying hard is one way of saving us from poverty),” he shares and expresses his gratitude to DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, for giving them support and better access to education.

Youngest among 11 children of Nemecia, housewife, and Wenceslao, a carpenter, whose family survived the super typhoon Yolanda, typhoon Seniang, and other disasters, Jerome plans to take up Electronic and Communications Engineering at the Eastern Visayas State University, one of the prestigious academes in Leyte province.###