Childhood pals top physical therapy exams

Nancy Sabandal (4th Placer) and Anthony Palaran Acenas (1st Placer)

Two childhood friends and neighbors were among the three graduates of Cebu schools who topped this month’s Physical Therapist Licensure Examination.

Anthony Palaran Acenas, 22, a magna cum laude graduate of Southwestern University (SWU) last March 2015,  topped the exam with a rating of 89.35  percent.

Bohol native Nico Merrill Hordista,   21, who topped his batch last October 2015 at the Cebu Doctors University, ranked third with 86.05 percent average grade.

Acenas’s  22-year-old classmate Nancy Karen Paete Sabandal, who also graduated cum laude from SWU last March 2015, ranked fourth with 86 percent.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced yesterday afternoon that 521 out of 912 examinees passed the Physical Therapist Licensure Examination.

For the Occupational Therapist Licensure Examination, 55 passed out of 102 examinees.

Both exams were given by the Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy in the cities of Manila and Cebu.

Acenas and Sabandal are neighbors in Barangay Tinago, Bato in Leyte province.

They were classmates from Grade I to Grade IV at the Bato Central School as well as classmates in high school at the Bato School of Fisheries.

Both graduated with honors. Their mothers are also work mates at the Hilongos General Hospital.

Sabandal’s mother Gloria worked as a nurse while Acenas’s mother Fe is the hospital’s nutritionist.

“I’m happy for Acenas. I expected him to top because he always topped during our review,” Sabandal said.

Sabandal said she considered her fate as a blessing from God, saying she did not expect to land in the top 10.

“It was unexpected. I was just aiming to pass the exam but not to top it. But then, I’m very thankful to God for giving this blessing,” she said.

Sabandal said she took the PT course because she wanted to help her family.

“I wanna go abroad, work there, earn good and my priority is really my family,” she said.

Sabandal’s mother worked as a nurse and her father worked as a civil engineer in Tacloban City. But she said they are not financially stable.

She is the seventh of 10 siblings and only four of her elder siblings finished school to find work as pharmacist, nurse, mechanical engineer and medical technologist.

Hordista said he prayed to top the exams. He took Physical Therapy since both his parents work as occupational therapists overseas. His mother works in New Jersey while his father works in Indiana.

Hordista said he’s preparing to leave for New Jersey at the end of this month.

“Tua na sila sa gawas ug moapas ko (They are already abroad and I plan to join them),” he said.