Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan's magna cum laude graduate Decel Bert A Bokingo landed on the ninth highest spot in the October 2018 Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensure examination.

Bokingo garnered a passing rate of 89.50% and shared the top-9 place with a graduate from the University of Caloocan.

In an online post, Bokingo wrote: “To my family and friends who unconditionally supported me for the past four years, this is for you. All the glory belongs to God!”

After 34 out of 78 examinees successfully took the CPA board exam, XU reaped a passing rate of 43.59%, against the national passing rate of 25.19%.

In his message to the academic community, Xavier Ateneo president Fr Roberto C Yap SJ congratulated Bokingo and the people behind his achievement.

“We thank School of Business & Management (SBM) dean Dr Ruth Love V Russell, Accountancy Department chairperson Estela S Ganas, the faculty and staff of SBM for their guidance and support for our students,” Yap said. “Congratulations to all our new Xavier Ateneo CPAs!”

Bokingo was also awarded the Outstanding SBM Graduate in March 2018.

The Professional Regulation Commission reported that only 3,616 out of 14,358 passed the October 2018 CPA board exam given by the Board of Accountancy in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, and Tuguegarao.∎