2018 Bar exams end peacefully

MANILA, Philippines — This year’s Bar exams ended peacefully with no untoward incident reported by police and the Supreme Court (SC), which administered the licensure test for lawyers.

Just like in previous years, Bar operations dubbed “salubong” were held by law schools, fraternities, sororities, organizations as well as families and friends for the examinees on the last day of the exams yesterday.

Banners and balloons greeted the Bar hopefuls who were able to finish the eight-subject, four-Sunday exams at the University of Sto. Tomas in Manila.

The Manila Police District (MPD) tightened security around the UST in anticipation of the surge of supporters of the examinees.

“The security precautions laid out by the MPD had been followed to the letter,” MPD Station 4 spokesman Senior Inspector Philipp Ines said.

The MPD beefed up the number of its personnel from 400 to 500, mostly assigned to man the gates of the school.

Police bomb squad and K-9 units were also deployed to the venue.

Former vice president Jejomar Binay was among those seen entering the school.

Traffic crawled after portions of España, Lacson Avenue and P. Noval street were closed to motorists.

From the 8,701 law graduates initially accepted by the SC to take the Bar exams, the number of examinees went down to 8,156.

Data from the SC Office of the Bar Confidant showed that 543 examinees were absent on the first day of the examination. Two more failed to appear on the succeeding Sundays of the exams.

Of the 7,227 Bar takers in November last year, only 1,724 or 25.5 percent became lawyers. – Rey Galupo