Jomel Lapides, a tailor’s son who works night shifts as a nurse at the state-run Philippine General Hospital, has notched double honors after topping this year’s 2020 Physician Licensure Examination, with an average of 88.67 percent, released Thursday.
The Professional Regulation Commission said the licensure exams granted the title to 3,538 new doctors this year out of the 4,704 examinees.
The details on the date and venue for their oath-taking ceremony are yet to be announced.
Lapides, cum laude graduate from Montalban, Rizal, also topped the Nurses Licensure Examination with a rating of 88.40 percent in 2011, and led fellow topnotchers from the UP Manila, like Tiffany Uy, with an average of 88.08 percent, who broke the record of the highest grade point average in UP in 2015, and placed fifth in this year’s board exam.
The new more than 3,500 doctors included Tricia, daughter of Vice President Leni Robredo.
Also making the top five were:
Patrick Joseph Mabugat from the University of Saint La Salle and Adrian Emmanuel Teves from the University of Santo Tomas who had a rating of 88.58 percent.
Henrick Ryan Fong from UST and Raphael Cecilio Rodolfo from UP Manila who had a rating of 88.33 percent.
Rafael Emmanuel Mendoza from the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health who had a rating of 88.17 percent.
Hannah Chito from UP Manila and Chino Samson from the Lyceum Northwestern University-Dagupan City who also got the same rating as Uy
Cebu Institute of Medicine earned the honor as the top-performing school place with 100 percent passing rate
In July this year, Uy graduated magna cum laude from UP College of Medicine. She was also the class valedictorian. She was summa cum laude when she finished her BS Biology pre-med course.