Cebuana Lhuillier Crowns Public School Teacher Zaldy Bueno as Happiest Pinoy 2019

Cebuana Lhuillier recently crowned 37 year old public school teacher, Zaldy Bueno, as the Happiest Pinoy 2019; making him the fourth person to be given that title.

The Happiest Pinoy award honors and celebrates the Filipino’s innate “optimism, resilience and hope amidst different life crises”.

Bueno managed to best nine other finalists from various categories and brought home one million pesos cash and an additional trophy.

The competition also featured a diverse group of judges including Gang Badoy Capati, James Deakin, RJ Ledesma, Love Anover-Lianko, Jonathan Yabut, Winston Maximo, Rommel Arellano, Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya and Richardson Navor. All judges gave their stamp of approval on Bueno due to his advocacy which was to see more children’s lives changed through education. Zaldy volunteered as an ALS teacher and taught on weekends.

The cool thing about Bueno was that at one point, he even had his own mother as a student to help her finish secondary education. He had also co-founded PADYAK back in 2017, which stands for Pidal Apakan Dunong Yayaman, Asenso’y Kakamtan. The group’s goal was to provide bikes to students who cannot afford to travel to school by conventional ways.

Cebuana Lhuillier President and CEO, Jean Henri Lhuillier had this to say:

I am very happy with the results of this year’s search — with over 800,000 entries received through branaches, online, SMS, and walk-in entries. It’s been amazing to read the entries of the 10 finalists and Zaldy proves to be a worthy winner as his tale will definitely inspire countless people to push on despite life’s difficulties, Zaldy exemplifies the commendable FIlipino spirit of rising up from your current predicament and using that as fuel to make a difference in the lives of others.

Currently, Bueno serves as the head teacher of the English department at the Gumaca National High School. As a kid, their family would often encounter financial difficulties, Zaldy would help his mom wash clothes for their neighbours and would get his daily allowance from selling vegetables he planted to augment the family income. Zaldy vowed to work hard and study hard in order to improve their life.

A turning point in Zaldy’s life was when typhoon Rosing hit in 1995 which completely obliterated their house, and forced to stay at the barangay health center. During clinic days, Zaldy and his family had to move their things on the street to accommodate the influx of patients.

After graduating secondary school, Zaldy tried to get a college education but had to stop schooling due to financial constraints. In order to get back to school, he had to work two jobs, including stints at a tile store and as an advertiser scout for a local radio station. He finished college after 6 years.

Bueno is the fourth winner of the biennial search following Richardson Navor (2015), Rommel Arellano (2012), and Winston Maxino (2009).

When asked what Bueno will do with the prize money, he shared that he will use it to further improve Project PADYAK by acquiring more bike units which more youths can use to get to school. He also shared that he will use a part of it to bring his parents to Singapore for a well-deserved vacation.

Breaking its own record, the Cebuana Lhuillier search received over 800,000 nominations this year, the most entries it received in its ten-year history.