Bar exam resetting, an opportunity

For the second time, the Supreme Court has reset the Bar examination because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Supreme Court gave more weight to everyone’s safety. Justice Marvic Leonen, the Bar examinations chairman, encouraged the applicants to keep the momentum and consider the postponement as an opportunity.

I agree. After all, there is no other way to pass the most challenging exams in the country but preparations and prayers.

I know all lawyers have their own stories of their sacrifices and their faith. Just for purposes of inspiring our future lawyers, let me share my humbling experience too.

Being a working student all the way to my Bar review days, I had time constraints in my preparations. After graduation, I asked my good employer, dyHP RMN Cebu, to allow me to take a leave of absence for my Bar review and examination.

The management had to find a replacement who could handle my radio commentary program. The top management was worried that my absence may affect the radio rating’s game.

My only other option to have enough time to prepare was to resign from my job, which I could not afford as a self-supporting student. So I just waited for the management to approve my leave of absence.

The RMN management sent to Cebu its primetime anchor of its radio station in Cagayan De Oro to temporarily replace me during my absence. It was then that I was given two months' leave that covered my review and proper examination.

Not a few of my professors at the University of San Carlos, who knew of my predicament, advised and suggested to me in a very friendly way to postpone my plan to take the 2006 Bar examinations.

Nonetheless, the libel cases that I had faced that impelled me to take up Law, plus my financially-impoverished background and the love for justice, were the anchors of my firm determination to become a lawyer. I am the eldest, and my father is a typical farmer. My mother passed away when I was four years old. Grit at its highest level helped me in no small way.

Not to be taken lightly was the heavy pressure of the fact that many knew that I would take the Bar in that particular year. Instead of keeping it secret like what other examinees do, I was left with no choice since the management, for transparency’s sake, had to reveal the reason for my absence, especially when my replacement, the late Joas Dignos, became controversial when he allegedly uttered foul words against the late Mandaue City mayor Thadeo Ouano.

So I made a list of people, especially those who were subjects of my commentary, whom I believe would ridicule me or find pleasure should I fail in the exam.

I also had my positive list of sources of inspiration, my dad being the no. 1 in it, and all my loved ones.

I posted the list in a conspicuous area in my room so that when I felt sleepy and lazy to study, it will stimulate me to continue studying. So my technique was to study hard and pray harder.

With all due respect to other religions, I visited almost all miraculous churches in Cebu, and I attended Holy Masses daily. I and my classmates and roommates became very religious. We had our devotion to Sr. Sto. Nino every single morning, and we never missed praying the rosary in the evening.

Let me say that human effort alone could not have made it all possible but somebody higher, and it’s the unerring ways of God.

With my experience, I appreciate the resetting of the exam as an opportunity to prepare, both physically and spiritually. My best wishes to all would-be lawyers!