Diwalwal honor graduates get real gold medals

DAVAO CITY — Eat your hearts out, other gold medalists.

Deserving top honor pupils and students who live near a gold mining site at Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo, Compostela Valley are shining even brighter than their counterparts in other parts of the country, including Metro Manila, thanks to their genuine gold medals.

For the fourth year now, the 10 first honor pupils and students at the Mt. Diwata Elementary School and the Mt. Diwata Union Annex High School have been recipients of gold medals that are actually made of the precious metal extracted from the local mining site. The gold medals are awarded to first honor students from first to fourth year high school.

These honor students are among the children of over 40,000 small-scale miners who toil at the gold rush site of Mt. Diwalwal. Most of them were actually born and are schooled in the area since mining operations began at Mt. Diwalwal in the early 1980s.

Each gold medal, based on current market value, is said to be worth P7,500. The gold contained in the medals, though not refined, is sourced purely from Mt. Diwalwal and is said to be 70-percent gold with 30-percent silver content.

Mt. Diwalwal barangay chairman Franco Tito told The STAR yesterday that the 10 honor roll students shall receive their real gold medals in a symbolic ceremony at the barangay gym on March 30.

"March 30 will be a separate ceremony for the first honor students aside from their respective recognition day or graduation rites because on that day we would be giving out the gold medals to the 10 awardees," Tito said.

Tito added that each gold medal weighs at least 10 grams and for

the 10 honor students, this would mean 100 grams of the metal that is contributed by the barangay.

"We get the required grams of gold from the businessmen, politicians and mill operators in the mining site. They all contributed to the total gold that we had to produce to make the 10 gold medals," he told The STAR.

Tito said that the giving out of real gold medals has encouraged competition among the more gifted students and has spurred the 2,000 other students at Mt. Diwalwal to study harder.

"We have inculcated in the minds of the students in the mining area

that education is always better that gold. What would that gold be if you have empty brains? So it is always better that one should have education and not rely on gold which could get lost along the way," he said.

Tito added that since the awarding of real gold medals started four years ago, three students have been consistent recipients of the medals each year.

"You could just imagine that if you receive one gold medal each for the 10 years, it would already help you economically and even in your higher studies. It would really help a lot," the Mt. Diwalwal village chief said.