1,913 of 5,990 pass Bar exams

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 1,913 law graduates passed last year’s Bar exams that featured for the first time multiple-choice questions, the Supreme Court (SC) confirmed yesterday.

SC spokesman Midas Marquez said the number of passers represented 31.95 percent of the total 5,990 candidates who took the tests on four Sundays of November last year at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila.

The passing rate, Marquez said, is the second highest ever. The highest passing rate was in 2001 with 32.89 percent.

“What we are seeing now is a jump from 20.26 percent in 2010 to 31.95 percent in 2011. A large part can be explained by reforms undertaken in 2011,” Marquez said.

Marquez said the SC did not adjust the passing grade from 75 percent, unlike in previous years.

Bar passers may get their clearance starting on March 1 at the Office of the Bar Confidant in the SC before they take their oath on March 12 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

A total of 6,200 applied but only 5,990 were able to complete the exams.

The high court also released the names of Bar examiners. They were Court of Appeals Justice and professor Amy Lazaro-Javier for political law; author and professor Cesario Alvero Azucena Jr. for labor law; author and former justice undersecretary Dean Ernesto Pineda for civil law; author and professor Abelrado Domondon for taxation; Court of Appeals Justice and professor Ramon Paul Hernando for mercantile law; Sandiganbayan Justice and professor Ma. Cristina Cornejo for criminal law; former professor and practitioner Virgilio Manguera for remedial law; and Mandatory Continuing Legal Education lecturer and professor Edwin Carillo for legal ethics.

Marquez made the announcement after SC justices approved the results in their regular session yesterday and decoding by the 2011 Bar exams committee chaired by Associate Justice Roberto Abad.

The lists of the names of successful examinees and topnotchers, however, have yet to be released at 2 p.m. yesterday since the results were still being manually audited as of press time.

The 2011 Bar exams saw for the first time the use of multiple-choice questions, which constituted 60 percent of the tests.

The examinees are required to write two types of essays: a trial memorandum filed in court and a legal opinion given to a client. A panel of four examiners graded each essay.

The passing rate for the trial memorandum was 15.47 percent while that for the legal opinion was 50.78 percent, the SC revealed.