MANILA, Philippines – A high school student from a Catholic school in Manila won a bronze medal in the prestigious 22nd Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad (APMO).

Carmela Antoinette Lao, 4th year student of St. Jude Catholic School, won a bronze medal for getting a score higher than 14, the cut-off score for a bronze medal.

A total of 13 students got gold medals, 34 silver medals and 79 bronze medals. APMO also awarded 43 honorable mentions.

“A win in the APMO implies a good preparation for the IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad). We might be far down with other countries around the world in the IMO, but a win in the APMO places us in comparison with our neighboring Asian and Pacific countries.  Because of its type of questions, among international math competitions for high school, APMO ranks second to IMO in difficulty,” said Philippine contingent to the IMO team leader Dr. Ian June Garces of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Garces said APMO is an annual international mathematics competition for high school students from the Asian and Pacific-rim countries and is the most prestigious and most difficult math competition next to the IMO.

Next month, Lao will be joining Henry Jefferson Morco of Chiang Kai Shek College and Zheng Rong Wu of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School in the 51st IMO in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Last year, Lao became the first Filipina to win a bronze medal in the 50th IMO held in Bremen, Germany.

The Philippines is on a 3-year streak of winning in the APMO. In 2008, the Philippines won a bronze medal courtesy of Tobit James Narciso of the Philippine Science High School-Diliman Campus (PSHS-Diliman). Last year, the Philippines hauled three bronze medals courtesy of Carlo Francisco Adajar of PAREF Southridge School, Immanuel Encarnacion of PSHS-Diliman, and Jake Gacuan of Quezon City Science High School.

Dr. Ester B. Ogena, Director of the Science Education Institute who awarded a Certificate of Recognition to Lao at simple ceremonies at ADMU, said Lao’s win is a triumph as well for Filipinas in the country.

“Her feat has shown that Filipinas can also dominate in the world of science and technology and Lao’s win shows that we are competitive enough to be at par with our foreign counterparts,” she said.