BAGUIO CITY – The daughter of a small-scale miner and a public school teacher missed the top spot in the April Criminology Licensure Examination by 1.05 percentage points and settled for second place in the said examination with a rating of 90.05.
Dr. Ariel Pumecha, Dean of the University of the Cordillera College of Criminal Justice Education, named one of their best bets for the examination as Nicole Atiwag Begnaen, 19, a native of Bontoc, Mountain Province, who hails from Itogon Benguet but graduated high school at the Baguio City National High School (BCNHS) Main campus along Gov. Pack Road here.
Begnaen’s father Eric Palangdao Begnaen is a small-scale miner while her mother Imelda Atiwag Begnaen is a public school teacher at the BCNHS Fort del Pilar Annex. Her younger sister Denisse is a second year business administration student at UC.
Imelda is a native of Alab, Bontoc, Mountain Province while Eric is said to be from Kalinga and Sabangan, Mountain Province.
Earlier, the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) disclosed that 4,337 out of the 14,696 examinees who took the April 7-9, 2015 Criminology Licensure Examination or 29.51 percent were able to pass the said examination that is given twice a year.
Topping the 2015 criminology exam was Arfe June Villacino Mosquera of the Davao-based University of Mindanao with a rating of 91.10.
At the same time, Pumecha disclosed UC was ale to retain its hold as the top criminology school in the country with a passing rate of 100 percent with all its 135 examinees passed the rigid examination.
Placing second to UC was the Batangas-based Lipa Colleges with a passing rate of 92.58 or 53 passers out of 57 examinees while the Baguio-based University of Baguio landed third with a passing rate of 88 percent or 66 passers out of 75 examinees.
Aside from Begnaen other UC topnothcers include Brian Michael Sinco Padama at sixth with a rating of 88.25; Joeme Ud-ulon Balangue at seventh place with a rating of 88.10 and Jona Jane Matlay Dodon at eight place with a rating of 88.05.
Tied at sixth place with Padama is Warren Galas Moyao of the University of Baguio (UB) with a similar rating.
Since 1997, UC was able to register its identity as the top criminology school in the country for 36 times with 34 times achieving a 100 percent passing rate of its examinees.
Pumecha attributed to success of UC in being able to maintain its hold as the top criminology school in the country through its long-term program in molding the students to become well-rounded professionals in the future by exposing them to actual trainings, updated curriculum and the overall support of the UC administration to the needed innovations.
“We are proud of our successful examinees who continue to bring honor and pride not only to themselves but also to the institution where they come from,” Pumecha told the Herald Express.
