A GRADUATE of the University of the Philippines led the 1,731 passers in last year’s Bar examinations, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday.
SC 2015 Bar Committee chairperson Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro said the passers represent 26.21 percent of the total of 6,605 graduates who completed the four-Sunday exams in November last year.
De Castro noted that the percentage of Bar passers is higher than the 18.82 percent in the
2014 examinations, which represented 1,126 passers of a total 5,984 takers.
According to her, unlike in the two previous years, the high court did not lower the passing grade of 75 percent.
She said the passers would formally take their oath as new lawyers on June 16 at 2 p.m. at the Philippine International Convention Center.
The SC magistrate also revealed that the Rachel Angeli B. Miranda, a graduate of UP College of Law, is last year’s Bar exams topnotcher, with an average of 87.4 percent.
LINO SANTOS
Angeli said her landing as topnotcher came as a surprise. “I never expected it. I did my best, I tried my best during the exams, but the result still came as a surprise. I couldn’t believe it because what I was really just hoping for was to pass. I just wanted to pass, that’s it,” shared Miranda, who also finished her undergraduate degree in UP Diliman as a scholar.
Miranda said she and her batch mates barely had five months to review for the Bar, having graduated in June 2015.
“We were all pretty scared that we didn’t have enough time to prepare for it, but our professors kept telling us that we already had four years in law school to prepare for this, that we shouldn’t be scared of passing, that we will pass. That helped me get through it,” she added.
Aside from Miranda, three more graduates of UP law made it to the top 10, namely: Jayson Aguilar in third place with average of 86.75 percent, Giselle Hernandez in sixth place with 86.1 percent and Jedd Brian Hernandez in ninth place with 85.8 percent.
The other bar takers who made it to the top 10 are: Athena Plaza of University of San Carlos in Cebu in second place with 87.25 percent; Reginald Arceo of Ateneo de Manila University in fourth place with 86.70 percent; Mandy Therese Anderson, also of Ateneo, in fifth place with 86.15 percent; Darniel Bustamante of San Beda College-Manila in seventh place with 85.9 percent; Jecca Jacildo of USC, Soraya Laut of Xavier University and Jericho Tiu of Ateneo, tied in eighth place with 85.85 percent; and Ronel Buenaventura of Bulacan State University and Lara Carmela Fernando of San Beda College-Manila in 10th place with 85.75 percent.
To give them credit for the successful 2015 Bar exams, the SC also disclosed the examiners for the eight Bar subjects: Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang for Political Law and Public International Law, SC spokesman Theodore Te for Labor and Social Legislation, Atty. Rita Linda-Jimeno for Civil Law, Court of Tax Appeals Associate Justice Amelia Cotangco-Manalastas for Taxation, Atty. Rafael Morales for Mercantile Law, Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Efren Dela Cruz for Criminal Law, Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo for Remedial law and Associate Justice Maria Theresa Mendoza-Arcega for Legal Ethics and Practical Exercises.
Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. has been named chairman of the 2016 Bar exams.
Meanwhile, Te, chief of the SC Public Information Office, revealed that Court is considering proposals to reform the bar examinations, including reducing the number of examinable subjects and possible regionalization.
These proposals, which include automation of the process of Bar applications and digitization of the lawyers’ list within the framework of the Judiciary’s Enterprise Information Systems Plan (EISP), came from deans of law schools who are regularly consulted by the high court.
“There is, as yet, no final decision by the Court on this matter. However, the Chair of the 2016 Bar Examinations, Justice Velasco, has already met with the law school deans and any changes will be announced in due course,” he said.
In last year’s Bar, the examinees were again required to use transparent or see-through bags for purposes of convenience and security.
The measure was adopted “to further ensure the safety and security of the examinees and Bar personnel.”
Additional security measures were put in place since the grenade explosion that marred the Sept. 2010 Bar exams in De La Salle University in Manila.
In the 2013 Bar exams, the SC reverted back to its previous format, which was predominantly essay-type. They consist of 80 percent essay-type questions and 20 percent multiple-choice questions. In the two years prior to that, the SC had conducted a predominantly multiple-choice format of Bar exams.
The tribunal also lifted its five-strike rule in Bar examinations, a policy implemented since 2005 in which examinees who have flunked five times are disqualified from further taking the Bar exams.