Evardo did not let his missing leg deter him from pursuing his dreams. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
Benny Boy “Beboy” Evardo lost his right leg in a vehicular accident when he was 17 years old.
This did not deter him.
Now 35, Evardo is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who works at the Commission on Audit regional office (COA-7). He is married and has three children.
Evardo’s first job was with a furniture manufacturing company in Lapu-Lapu City. He then worked as an accountant at the Cebu City Hall from 2007 to 2010. He started his career as a member of the audit team in 2010.
“I decided to work in the government because there is no discrimination. I was never bullied (at work),” he said.
Evardo, the fifth of eight children, came to Cebu from his hometown in Medina City, Misamis Oriental to study high school on a full scholarship at The Sisters of
Mary Boys Town in Minglanilla town, Cebu. A group of nuns went to his hometown and invited him to take the entrance exam.
After graduation, Beboy went back to his hometown and became a helper to his father, then a truck driver.
They were on their way home from the mountains of Gingoog City when the vehicular accident happened on a rainy evening in 1997.
His father was driving while Evardo was in the passenger seat. His father didn’t notice a truck parked at the side of the road because it was on a blind curve. The impact of the crash knocked Beboy unconscious. When he came to, he was in the hospital.
He was told that it took several hours for rescuers to pull him out of the truck’s front seat. Evardo still had his right leg when he was brought to the hospital. After about two weeks, however, infection set in and the doctors were forced to amputate.
Despite his condition, Beboy was awarded a scholarship in 2000 at the Father Saturnino Urios University in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte. He took up Bachelor of Science in Accountancy.
“Wala na ko nipaso pag graduation kay gasto (I did not attend the graduation ceremony because of the expenses),” he said.
Evardo had wanted to become a teacher but was worried that he may be assigned in the mountain barangays where first-time teachers usually get posted, a stress that he may not be able to handle.
He almost was not able to attend review classes. But his father won a Swertres game and gave him the money for his review classes. Beboy passed the accountancy board exam in May 2006.
To aspiring accountants and people with disability, Evardo shared this advice: “Kung may gusto, may paraan (If there’s a will, there’s a way).” /Contributor Rhea Ruth Rosell