Bar results out today

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court is set to release the results of last year’s Bar examinations tonight.

A record 6,364 law graduates from 109 law schools took and completed the Bar examination given over four Sundays last September at the De La Salle University in Manila, according to the Office of the Bar Confidant.

SC deputy clerk of court and Bar confidant Ma. Cristina Layusa said 6,533 applicants were admitted to take the Bar but 158 examinees failed to complete the examinations.

SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said all SC justices would meet at 9 a.m. today to deliberate on the passing rate in the Bar examinations before the final results are issued early evening.

Deliberations on the Bar examination results would be led by Associate Justice Dante Tinga, chairman of the Bar examinations committee.

Marquez said the list of names of new lawyers would be displayed in LCD projectors at the front yard of the SC building in Padre Faura Street in Manila.

The results would immediately be posted at the SC’s official website, http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph, and also on websites of major national news organizations, including The STAR (http://philstar.com).

In a statement, the SC said under the Rules of Court, “a candidate may be deemed to have passed his examination successfully if he has obtained a general average of 75 percent in all subjects without failing below 50 percent in any subject.”

The average grade of a Bar examinee is computed based on respective percentages of subjects:

• 15 percent for political and international law,

• 10 percent for labor and social legislation,

• 15 percent for civil law,

• 10 percent for taxation,

• 15 percent for mercantile law,

• 10 percent for criminal law,

• 20 percent for remedial law, and

• 5 percent for legal ethics and practical exercises.

In the 2007 Bar examinations, results of which were announced last year, a total of 1,289 passed out of 5,626 examinees, or a passing rate of 22.91 percent.

Mercedita Ona of the Ateneo de Manila University topped last year’s Bar examinations with an average of 83.55 percent, followed closely by Jennifer Ong, of the University of the Philippines with 83.35 percent.

The SC adjusted the passing average in the 2007 exams from 75 percent to 70 percent because the passing rate would have been much lower, perhaps an all-time low of five percent. — Edu Punay