MANILA, Philippines - Kenneth Co, a third-year math whiz kid from the Philippine Science High School (PSHS)-Main Campus bagged the top prize in the 13th Philippine Mathematics Olympiad (PMO) held at the University of the Philippines-Diliman over the weekend, becoming the country’s national champion.
Aside from getting P15,000 and a gold medal, Co also gets a shot to be the Philippines’ representative in the prestigious International Math Olympiad (IMO) 2011, to be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands this July.
Winning second place was Henry Jefferson Morco of Chiang Kai Shek College while Carmela Lao of St. Jude Catholic School won third place.
All three PMO winners are wards of the Mathematics Trainers Guild-Philippines, headed by its president, Dr. Simon Chua, the lone Filipino recipient of the Paul Erdos Award for Mathematical Excellence.
Under MTG-Philippines, Co, Morco, and Lao have won their share of gold, silver and bronze medals in various international math tournaments in the past several years.
Just turned 16, Co is a veteran of numerous international and national competitions having won more than 50 international medals, trophies and citations from Singapore to China, from India to Indonesia since 2005.
The top three winners, together with the other 17 national finalists, will undergo the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Camp in April, a five-phase program to determine the Philippine Team to the IMO.
The PMO is organized every year by the Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP), headed by Dr. Jumela SarmieScience Education Institute (DOST-SEI) in a bid to awaken greater interest in and promote the appreciation of mathematics among students and teachers and identify mathematically-gifted students and motivate them towards the development of their mathematical skills.