For the third time, Grade 12 student Bryce Ainsley Sanchez of Grace Christian College emerged as champion at the 23rd Philippine Mathematical Olympiad (PMO) held online on March 19 to 20.

The Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) extended its felicitations to Sanchez who earned the PMO’s top title for three consecutive years after besting over two dozen other finalists.

“Bryce’s achievement is all the more notable and exemplary given the challenges that everyone—most especially students like him and his fellow competitors—have had to face over the past year,” DOST SEI Director Josette Biyo said in a statement.

The DOST-SEI also congratulated Steven Reyes of Saint Jude Catholic School and Raphael Dylan Dalida of Philippine Science High School – Main Campus, who are both Grade 12 students, for winning first and second runners-up at the PMO.

Reyes is a consistent national finalist in previous PMOs. He received silver medals in the International Physics Olympiad in 2018 and 2019.

Meanwhile, Dalida was the first runner-up in last year’s PMO as well as a bronze medalist alongside Sanchez at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) the same year, the Institute said.

“They all truly deserve to be called Filipino Olympians,” Biyo said.

The PMO is a project of the Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP) and the DOST’s SEI.

“Mathematics truly knows no bounds, and our students and competitors are a living testament to this,” Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP) president Emmanuel Cabral said.

The DOST-SEI described the PMO as MSP’s long-standing tradition. The MSP has been organizing the Olympiad as an annual proving ground for some of the country’s brightest young minds for almost four decades, it said.

"The PMO is the country’s most prestigious nationwide mathematics competition for secondary school students, who compete for the honor of representing the nation at the annual IMO.”