Bar exams kick off with festive atmosphere

MANILA, Philippines — The 2018 Bar examinations administered by the Supreme Court (SC) kicked off yesterday amid a peaceful and festive atmosphere at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

Banners with inspirational messages, balloons and religious images greeted the aspiring lawyers before they headed to the test venue.

Members of a sorority from Far Eastern University were seen carrying an icon of the Sto. Niño for good luck.

A 62-year-old mother, set to take the Bar exam for the third time, was accompanied by her children.

Just like in previous years, Bar send-off operations for the examinees were held by law schools, fraternities, sororities, organizations as well as families and friends on the first day of the four-Sunday exams.

The tight police security did not stop fraternity members from putting up makeshift command centers where they distributed bags of food and drinks for the Bar takers.

Policemen were posted along the streets of Dapitan, P. Noval, A.H. Lacson and España for the duration of the exams.

National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Guillermo Eleazar inspected the security measures implemented by the police.

No untoward incident was reported inside and around the university, where 400 police officers were deployed by the Manila Police District, according to the SC.

Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo, chairman of this year’s Bar exams committee, met with law school deans for the traditional breakfast, where they discussed the questions for the first day of the exams.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen also visited the venue to wish the examinees good luck.

“Eat well, sleep well. Don’t panic and take the exam one question at a time,” Leonen, former law dean of UP, told the Bar takers.

The Manila city government imposed a liquor ban within a 100-meter radius of UST. A “no parking” policy was implemented along España and Dapitan streets during the exams.

Medical personnel were also deployed for emergency situations.

Palace: Good luck          

Malacañang wished the Bar examinees good luck as they faced what it described as “one of life’s great equalizers.”

“To the Bar candidates: study hard, believe in yourselves and give it your best shot. We wish you all the best,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

“Just like all other licensure tests, this exam for aspiring lawyers is, as they say, one of life’s great equalizers,” he added. 

Panelo said the Bar exam is both a test of academic knowledge and a yardstick of calmness and courage under pressure. 

“But all these are only requisites to the practice of law as the real challenge is upholding the integrity and dignity of the profession amid the fascinations of the legal world, after you have taken your oaths and signed the rolls,” he said. 

For the first day of the licensure test, the examinees faced political law in the morning and labor law in the afternoon.               

On Nov. 11, they will take the exams in civil law and taxation before tackling mercantile and criminal law on the third Sunday. On the fourth and final Sunday, the examinees will take on remedial law and ethics.

A total of 8,701 law graduates were accepted to this year’s Bar exam, the highest in recent years.

Of the 7,227 examinees who took the Bar last year, only 1,724 or 25.5 percent passed.– With Alexis Romero