EQ vs IQ

The names of the 10 topnotchers in the 2021 Bar examinations will no longer be announced.

Instead, the law schools that had the most number of Bar exam passers will be announced.

Those ideas were proposed by Justice Marvic Leonen and adopted by the Supreme Court as a whole.

“It is hoped that by shifting the focus away from how select individuals excel and onto a school’s collective performance, this will encourage deep-seated and wide-ranging improvements in legal education,” said Leonen, former dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law, in a Bar bulletin.

Leonen is this year’s chairman of the 2020-2021 Bar examinations.

Let’s hope that even after Leonen steps down as Bar exam chairman, his ideas will become permanent.

Announcing the names of the “Top 10” in order of their scores is elitist and degrades the other passers.

The medical licensure exams and the exams for aspiring lawyers are the most difficult among all professional licensure examinations.

Whether a candidate got a grade of 75 percent or 99.9 percent, the fact that he or she hurdled the grueling tests is a feat in itself.

Announcing the schools with the highest number of successful Bar examinees is sound, since it would make all law schools strive to upgrade their standards.

It would also give credit to a particular law school’s quality of education.

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One’s excellent performance in the classroom in high school and college is no guarantee of success in the outside world.

Many students who graduated at the bottom of their class became more accomplished than their brighter classmates later; that is, if the measure of success is to be based on accomplishments outside the classroom.

Life in the outside world is very different from life on campus.

US Army Gen. George Patton, the most decorated and famous general officer during World War II, graduated “goat” (in the bottom rung) of his class at West Point.

We don’t have to go far. President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte was just an average student in high school at the Ateneo de Davao where he was expelled in his second year.

Digong was also an average student at the San Beda Law School where Vitaliano Aguirre graduated valedictorian in his class.

But look at Digong now. Emotional quotient (EQ) played a big part in his destiny to become the head honcho of the land.

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I’m reminded of what business tycoon Lucio Tan told me years ago about EQ.

Tan gave an example: Two equally intelligent persons who graduated summa cum laude in their respective schools got accepted at the same time in a company where they applied at.

Both were highly efficient in their jobs.

Years later, why did one become president of the company while the other remained as supervisor in a section? Tan asked me.

One had more EQ than the other, Tan said when I couldn’t answer.

EQ, as differentiated from intelligence quotient (IQ), is having practical social skills or the ability to interact with others.

In the real world, EQ trumps IQ.

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A Harvard study of how graduates in their classes fared in the outside world showed that those at the bottom rung of their batch tended to be more accomplished than their brighter classmates.

The study divided a class into three groups: the highest graders, the middle and the bottom finishers.

Those who graduated at the top of their class became professors or deans of Ivy League schools.

Those in the middle became CEOs and presidents of big companies.

What about those in the bottom of their class? The study showed that most of them became owners of their own corporations.

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Young billionaire and presidential crony Dennis Uy had a private meeting with presidential wannabe Manny Pacquiao in Los Angeles, according to an impeccable source.

This was a few days after Pacquiao got trounced in the ring by Cuban Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Uy’s meeting with Pacquiao had tongues wagging in the Filipino community in Los Angeles, my source said.

Their meeting came at a time when Uy again became controversial after he bagged a contract with the Commission on Elections to transport ballots, election equipment and other materials in the 2022 elections.

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The Comelec said it found no violation in Uy’s bagging of the contract, since he won it fair and square over other bidders.

If the poll body found nothing illegal in awarding the contract to Uy, it should have considered the morality of the contract.

What is legal is sometimes unethical or immoral.

The Comelec should have looked into the moral aspect or propriety of awarding the contract to one who is very close to President Digong.

Even if the contract was aboveboard, the public would be incredulous that there was no hocus-pocus in the bidding.

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It’s high time President Digong distanced himself from Michael Yang, who has been linked to Pharmally, a firm reportedly involved in the gross overpricing of face masks and face shields bought by the government.

Yang, whose complete name is Yang Hong Ming, was linked to illegal drugs in the past, although he was cleared later.

Yang has been bragging about his close ties to the President, presenting himself to potential investors from Mainland China as “presidential economic adviser” even after his appointment has been terminated.

The porch at his house in Forbes Park has a big seal of the Office of the President with the title presidential economic adviser at the bottom.

His office in Makati has a gigantic sign that reads: Office of the Presidential Economic Adviser.