A 94.25% on a national engineering board exam is not a narrow margin of victory.
Across sixteen cities spanning the Philippine archipelago, thousands of aspiring electrical engineers sat for the April 2026 licensure examination administered by the Professional Regulation Commission — and when the results emerged, John Veluz Labrador of UP Diliman stood at the summit with a score of 94.25%. Of the 6,556 who took the exam, 3,769 passed, a moment that quietly expands the country's technical workforce and affirms the enduring role of state universities in shaping its engineering class. Seventy-five practitioners, some working as far away as Qatar and the UAE, also cleared the higher-tier professional electrical engineer evaluation — a reminder that the pursuit of credentials does not stop at borders.
- A single score — 94.25% — separated John Veluz Labrador of UP Diliman from the rest of a national field of over six thousand examinees.
- With testing centers spread across sixteen cities from Baguio to Zamboanga, the exam represented one of the PRC's most geographically ambitious licensure efforts.
- UP Los Baños posted a near-perfect institutional result, with 53 of 54 examinees passing — a margin that left almost no room for failure.
- A parallel exam for registered master electricians drew 882 candidates, with 493 passing and Southern Luzon State University's Adrian Baconawa topping the field at 89.00%.
- Seventy-five engineers cleared the professional electrical engineer upgrade evaluation, with candidates sitting not only in Manila but in Doha and Dubai — signaling how far the profession's ambitions now reach.
When the Professional Regulation Commission released the April 2026 registered electrical engineers licensure results, one name rose above a field that stretched across nearly every major city in the country: John Veluz Labrador of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, who finished with a score of 94.25%. Of the 6,556 examinees who sat for the test across sixteen centers nationwide, 3,769 passed — a passage rate of roughly 57 percent.
Labrador's margin was not a close victory. A score of that height on a national engineering board exam tends to define a cohort, and his alma mater, UP Diliman, once again placed itself near the top of the institutional rankings. Among schools with 30 or more examinees, UP Los Baños claimed the best-performing distinction, with 53 of its 54 test-takers clearing the bar. The Technological University of the Philippines-Manila matched that near-perfection in the smaller bracket, with 20 of 21 passing.
The same board also administered the registered master electricians exam across the same sixteen locations, where 493 of 882 examinees passed. Adrian Buenaobra Baconawa of Southern Luzon State University-Lucban led that field with an 89.00%.
Separately, 75 candidates cleared the technical evaluation for upgrading to professional electrical engineer — a higher-tier credential evaluated not only in Metro Manila but also in Doha and Dubai, reflecting how many of the country's licensed engineers are advancing their careers from abroad. Together, the April 2026 cycle added hundreds of newly credentialed professionals to the archipelago's technical workforce, with state universities once again anchoring the top of the results.
When the Professional Regulation Commission released the results of the April 2026 registered electrical engineers licensure examination, one name sat at the top of a list that stretched across nearly every major city in the country: John Veluz Labrador of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, who finished with a score of 94.25%.
The exam was administered simultaneously in sixteen testing centers — Metro Manila, Baguio, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Koronadal, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Rosales, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, and Zamboanga — making it one of the more geographically dispersed licensure efforts the PRC runs. Of the 6,556 people who sat for it, 3,769 passed, a passage rate of roughly 57 percent.
Labrador's score was the ceiling of that entire field. A 94.25% on a national engineering board exam is not a narrow margin of victory — it is the kind of result that tends to define a cohort. His alma mater, UP Diliman, has long been a fixture near the top of these rankings, and this cycle was no exception.
Among institutions, UP Los Baños claimed the best-performing school distinction in the category of 30 or more examinees, with 53 of its 54 test-takers clearing the bar — a pass rate that leaves almost no room for error. In the smaller bracket, covering schools with 20 to 29 examinees, the Technological University of the Philippines-Manila turned in a nearly identical performance: 20 of 21 passing.
The same Board of Electrical Engineering also administered the registered master electricians licensure exam across the same sixteen locations. There, 493 of 882 examinees passed. The top scorer in that examination was Adrian Buenaobra Baconawa of Southern Luzon State University-Lucban, who finished with an 89.00%.
Separately, the PRC announced that 75 candidates passed the technical evaluation for upgrading as professional electrical engineers — a distinct, higher-tier credential. That evaluation was conducted not only in Metro Manila but also in Doha, Qatar and Dubai in the UAE, a reminder that a significant portion of the country's licensed engineers are working abroad and pursuing professional advancement from there.
Taken together, the April 2026 cycle produced hundreds of newly credentialed electrical engineers and master electricians across the archipelago, with the top performers drawn from state universities that have historically invested heavily in engineering programs. The 75 who cleared the professional electrical engineer upgrade represent a smaller but notable cohort — practitioners with enough field experience to seek the highest rung of the profession's licensing ladder.
Full results for both the registered electrical engineers and registered master electricians examinations are available through the PRC.
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493 out of 882 passed the registered master electricians licensure exam, with the top score going to Adrian Buenaobra Baconawa at 89.00%.— Professional Regulation Commission (PRC)
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What does it actually mean to top a board exam with 94.25%? Is that an unusually high score?
For a national licensure exam in engineering, yes — it's exceptional. These exams are designed to test across a wide range of technical subjects, and scores in the low-to-mid eighties are typically considered strong. Clearing 94 puts you in a different category entirely.
And the pass rate overall — 57 percent of nearly 6,500 people. Is that considered good or poor for this exam?
It sits in a range that suggests the exam is genuinely difficult without being designed to fail people. More than four in ten didn't make it, which means the credential carries real weight.
Why does the PRC run this in sixteen cities at once?
Access and equity, mostly. Engineering graduates come from every region of the country, and requiring everyone to travel to Manila would create a significant barrier. Spreading the exam geographically means someone in Zamboanga or Tacloban can sit for it close to home.
The overseas testing locations for the professional electrical engineer upgrade stood out to me. What's the significance of that?
It reflects how many Filipino engineers are working in the Gulf. Doha and Dubai aren't incidental — they're where a large portion of the diaspora's technical workforce is concentrated. Offering the upgrade evaluation there means those engineers don't have to fly home to advance their credentials.
UP Los Baños had 53 of 54 pass. That's almost a perfect institutional record. What does that suggest?
It suggests a program that prepares students very specifically for what the board exam tests — not just general engineering knowledge, but the particular shape of this examination. One person didn't pass, which keeps it from being a perfect sweep, but 98 percent is a remarkable institutional result.
The master electricians exam had a lower pass rate than the engineers exam. Is that typical?
The two credentials serve different purposes and draw different candidate pools, so direct comparison is tricky. But a lower pass rate in the master electricians exam isn't unusual — the candidate pool often includes working practitioners who may have been out of formal study for years.