THE start of this year’s Bar examinations was peaceful and orderly, even as more than 7,000 law graduates were admitted to take what is considered the country’s most grueling tests slated over four Sundays in November at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
The Supreme Court said 7,227 law graduates were admitted to take the 116th Bar exams.
Of the 7,270 who initially applied to take the exams, 13 were denied while 30 others withdrew their applications, the high court said.
Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin, the chairman of this year’s Bar exams committee, said this year’s applications were higher than the number of Bar takers in the last three years.
No untoward incident was reported inside and around the vicinity of the venue where 700 policemen were deployed by the Manila Police District.
For the first time in the history of the Bar exams, the high court has deployed a “Justice on Wheels” bus at the venue to serve as a special trial court to hear the case against anyone arrested by the police disrupting the conduct of the exams or violating the rules around the 100-meter vicinity of the UST.
A metropolitan trial court judge manned the special court and was authorized to impose on-the-spot punishment of fines or imprisonment of up to 10 days or both for offenders on charges of direct contempt of court.
As in the previous years, the Manila local government and police implemented security measures for the Bar exams.
A liquor ban is imposed within the 100-meter radius of UST and a “no parking” policy is implemented along España and Dapitan during the conduct of the exams.
“No tent and tarpaulins” and “no loud music” were also declared at the venue.
Medical personnel were also deployed.
The high court also deployed 10 buses from stations all over Metro Manila to transport examinees and personnel to the venue in case of heavy rain.
For the first day of the four-Sunday tests, the examinees faced political law in the morning and labor law in the afternoon.
Next Sunday, they will take the exams in civil law and taxation before facing mercantile and criminal laws on the third Sunday. On the fourth and final Sunday, the examinees will take on remedial law and ethics.
In the 2016 Bar exams, a total of 3,747 passed and became new lawyers. Their batch represents one of the highest passing rate in the history of the Bar exams, or 59.06 percent of the total of 6,344 takers who completed the exams in November last year.
Additional security measures were put in place since the grenade explosion that marred the September 2010 Bar exams at the De La Salle University in Manila.
In the past three years, the examinees were required to use transparent or see-through bags for purposes of convenience and security.
In the 2013 Bar exams, the high court reverted back to its previous format, which was predominantly essay-type. Those consisted of 80-percent essay-type questions and 20-percent multiple-choice questions.