MANILA, Philippines — Twenty-nine students yesterday graduated summa cum laude from the University of the Philippines (UP).
At the UP commencement exercises, Jose Dalisay Jr., UP vice president for public affairs, said the figure reflected the consistently high number of UP Diliman honor graduates in the annual ceremonies.
“Historically, there are many summa cum laude graduates,” Dalisay told The STAR in a phone interview.
A high number of summa cum laude and cum laude graduates, he said, indicated that the so-called Iskolar ng Bayan turned in hard work, aside from innate brilliance, “as they are given the government subsidized quality college education provided by UP.”
“They are really the cream of the crop,” he added.
“Mahirap na nga makapasok sa UP. Mas mahirap ang mag summa cum laude. (It’s hard to enter UP. But it’s harder to gradute summa cum laude),” Dalisay said.