POVERTY is not a hindrance to success.
This was proven by Michael Mayordomo, son of a karga-tapas from Hinigaran town, Negros Occidental, who recently passed the Licensure Examination for Civil Engineers administered by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC).
“Life is like a roller coaster, it is filled with ups and downs and e may encounter so many difficulties that can cause us to fall down but the issue is not how many times we fall down, but how many times we rise up and fight,” Mayordomo, third of five siblings, said.
He said they were raised by their parents through “karga-tapas,” which is a coined term referring to sugarcane farmworker whose job is to cut and haul the sugarcane.
“Despite their perseverance to earn, still, it couldn't suffice for all our needs,” he also said.
He said everything changed when their family became a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4PS) of the national government.
"The program through the cash grants is helping us even until now by improving our health and sustaining our educational needs. It also lessens the financial burden of my parents because we are able already to buy our basic needs," he said.
“I am not ashamed that our family belongs to 4Ps (and) in fact, I am grateful because many opportunities had opened doors for me,” Mayordomo said.
He recalled that one of the momentous events his life is when he was awarded and recognized as one of the high school 4Ps graduates with high honors by the late President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City where he was given the chance to represent Western Visayas along with the three others.
As a program-monitored student, he has availed of the Expanded Student's Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA), which helped him finish college.
“Now, I am reaping all the fruits of my sacrifices and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 4Ps for snatching millions of Filipino families from the clutch of poverty,” the new engineer said.
Mayordomo, who has been a valedictorian since elementary, said his success marks another milestone in his life and he offers this with all humility to God, which is his source of everything.
He wants to be an inspiration to my fellow beneficiaries saying, “don't lose hope, just strive hard to achieve success.”