The local government unit (LGU) Koronadal has its new city budget officer in a person of Emma Braña Antenorio. Antenorio who is now on her 34 years as an employee of this LGU passed the concurrence of Sangguniang Panlungsod in their regular session recently.

Wearing a happy smile in her face and full of inspiration, City Budget Officer Antenorio said, “Dream come true, poverty is not a barrier to achieve the desired goal.” She recalls the financial hardship during her school days which was the main reason why she wasn’t able to pursue the so-called her first love-the engineering course.

In an interview, the budget officer revealed that the course she graduated was not her first choice. The first course she took up was a Mechanical Engineering course at the University of Mindanao (UM) but because of financial constraints, she just finished the first semester of her first year.

The year 1978, Antenorio tried again her luck in engineering course but after two and a half (2 1/2) years, she gave up still due to financial difficulty until she got married at the age of 19.

As a married woman, she thought the opportunity is elusive for her not until June 2, 1986, when she was hired at LGU Koronadal as assessment aid with salary grade 1. After five years (5), Antenorio got promoted as clerk 3 at the Planning Office with a salary grade 6 and served the position from 1990 – 2005. While working, she tried to take a career service professional examination and she passed.

In 1996, opportunity still came in when she was offered to pursue her college degree taking up Bachelor of Science (BS) in Commerce major in Management through Expanded Tertiary Equivalency Education Accreditation Program (ETEEAP) under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) sponsored by the LGU.

The year 2006 when she again moved to a higher rank when promoted as budget officer 2 and a few years later became budget officer 3 and now a full pledge city budget officer.

Antenorio finished her elementary grades at Barangay Mabini Elementary School, her secondary at Koronadal National Comprehensive High School (KNCHS) and graduated her college and master’s degree at Notre Dame of Marbel University (NDMU).

She is married to Mr. Domingo Antenorio, Jr. and blessed with seven (7) children, six (6) of them were already practicing their chosen field of a profession while the youngest is still in college taking up an engineering course.

Antenorio, on the other hand, expresses her gratitude to the local government of Koronadal for entrusting her to manage the budget office where she is serving now for 13 years. She also assured the clients that their office will continue to render good services as best as they can.