Second degree cousins Vianca Pearl I. Amores and Marianito Jesus B. Del Rio (contributed photo)
Vianca Pearl I. Amores and Marianito Jesus B. Del Rio are second degree cousins. They also graduated from the same school, University of San Carlos, taking up the same course, accountancy.
Their likeness did not stop there. They took the Certified Public Accountant ((CPA) Licensure Examination at the same time and, as luck would have it, both landed in the top ten, sharing the top spot.
Amores and Del Rio, who both ranked first place with a rating of 92.67 percent, are among the nine graduates from USC and University of San Jose Recoletos who made it to the top ten of the May 2017 CPA licensure exam.
“I have every reason to be happy with both us sharing the top one position. We share they same wishes and goals,” Amores told Cebu Daily News partly in Cebuano.
Amores, 20, a native of Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City, graduated Summa Cum Laude last April 2017.
Amores is the second of three children of Lapu-Lapu City Councilor Ricardo Amores.
Del Rio, on the other hand, graduated Magna Cum Laude during the same graduation rites in USC.
Four other graduates of USC also made it to the top ten successful examinees.
They are Jessa Bermudo, who ranked second with an average of 92.50 percent; Alyanna Kate Buenavista and Maaku Wamar Saito, who both ranked fourth with an average rating of 91.83 percent; and Cristiemay Vertudazo, who ranked tenth with an aversge rating of 90 percent.
Three graduates from USJR also landed in the top ten: Harold Pacaña, who ranked sixth with an average rating of 91 percent; Marie Claire Cortes and Jessele Ann Echavez, who shared the seventh spot with an average rating of 90.67 percent.
The achievements by USC and USJR graduates in the CPA licensure exams came in the heels of the victory of Karen Mar Calam, a graduate of the USC Law school, who landed number one in the Bar exams, considered as the toughest licensure examinations in the country.