AL PATRICK Cajandab Alajas is living his dream to be a doctor, the first in his family.
He topped the March 2016 Physician Licensure Examination, with a rating of 88.67 percent.
A schoolmate, Francine Nayra Diloy, ranked 9th with a rating of 85.08 percent. They were among 483 passers out of 1,044 examinees, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced last night.
Alajas, a graduate of Southwestern University – Matias H. Aznar Memorial College of Medicine, said he merely aimed for a spot in the top 10 of successful examinees.
“I did not expect to become number one in the examination,” he said laughing in a phone interview last night. He received a barrage of calls and text messages last night.
He plans to specialize in internal medicine.
Nine days before the examination, Alajas went to the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes and attended a novena and the 5 a.m. Mass.
A native of Barangay Punta Princesa in Cebu City, he is the second of four siblings. His father is an engineer who works abroad while his mother is a housewife.
Asked what his secret is, he said it’s achieving a balance between his studies and rest.
“Make sure you have rest. If you want to sleep, then sleep,” he said.