Rhelyn Harder
- He lives in one of the districts in Manila called Tondo
- To make a living, his mother used to sell spaghetti and/or pancit palabok on the streets
- He took the Criminology Board Examination and ranked third in the examination results
Poverty is not a hindrance to success! Cadet Jervis Allen Ramos became a top PNPA cadet of their graduating class. He lives in one of the districts in Manila called Tondo, where their family lives in a single-bedroom house with a tiny kitchen and bathroom, as they were just renting the place.
“We’ve never had our own home. We were just renting a place,” recalled Ramos, the youngest of three siblings, two of whom have already graduated from college.
His father died when he was only 13 because of a liver disease and were left to his mother’s care. For the family to survive, his mother used to sell spaghetti and/or pancit palabok on the streets.
He took up Criminology at the University de Manila and after taking the Criminology Board, he ranked third in the exam results. Now, he is fulfilling his father’s dream of becoming a policeman.
“When I was young, he (encouraged) me to join the police. Maybe he wanted to pass on his dreams to me,” he said.
His journey to reach his dream was not that easy. He experienced poverty amid crime and vices. Life in Tondo was so hard. He even experienced getting into trouble with some friends during his high school days, but he said “not to the point of having to drop out of school.”
Ramos looked at his family’s situation as motivation to finish his studies. He dreams of giving her mother a house and spend time traveling with the family.
“I would really like to buy (my mother) a house,” Ramos said. As well as spending time with his family traveling “to beautiful places” around the country.
Ramos is expected to graduate on March 22 in Silang, Cavite along with 200 other members of the Sansiklab Class or the Sandigan ng Mamamayan na may Sigasig na Itaguyod ang Kapayapaan at Ipaglaban ang Bayan. He achieved being one of the top cadets for this year’s graduating class of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA). Indeed, poverty did not stop him from excelling in his studies.
His purpose in joining the Philippine National Police is to become a good example to others in the field of law enforcement.
“The right character and (doing) public service well will earn back the (people’s) trust,” he added.
And he also said that there’s no glory without sacrifice, which means that to reach our goals in life, we need to work hard for it. Like Ramos, who, despite the poverty he experienced with his family, was able to manage and make his dreams turn to reality.
