Bar exams end without incident

MANILA, Philippines - No bloody end to the Bar exams this year.

The Supreme Court yesterday described as orderly and peaceful the last day of this year’s Bar exams held at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

SC spokesman Midas Marquez said reforms and tight security measures have effectively prevented a repeat of the grenade attack that marred the conclusion of last year’s Bar exams, leaving at least 50 people injured.

The High Tribunal had earlier banned festive celebrations of fraternities and sororities that are part of the traditional “Bar operations” around the venue of the scheduled exams.

The “salubong” or welcoming of examinees after the tests was held in the streets a few blocks away from UST campus.

A total of 6,200 law graduates took this year’s Bar exams.

No untoward incidents were reported during the four-Sunday exams held this month, according to the Manila Police District Tactical Operations Center.

Operatives from the MPD and National Bureau of Investigation agents secured the areas surrounding the venue prior to the first day of the exam on Nov. 6.

This year’s exams covered subjects on trial memorandum, legal opinion political and international law, labor and social legislation, taxation, civil law and mercantile law, remedial law, legal ethics and forms and criminal law.

Bar examinees admitted they had a hard time answering the multiple choice-type questionnaires.

Justice Roberto Abad, chairman of the SC’s 2011 committee on Bar exams, said the high court approved the change in the format of the exams “to address the problems caused by the essay-type exams.”

The SC had earlier denied a leakage in this year’s exams.

“Every year, loose talks on ‘Bar tips’ circulate. However, they remain unsubstantiated and without basis,” Marquez said.

He cited reports about the involvement in the alleged leakage of a certain “Jess Mundo,” probably referring to Sandiganbayan Justice Alex Gesmundo.

But Justice Gesmundo was not an examiner in the 2011 Bar exam, Marquez stressed.