SC mulls Bar exams in Vis-Min

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) is studying a proposal to hold the annual Bar examinations outside of Manila.

In a one-page resolution released yesterday, the SC directed its Committee on Bar Examinations to look into a request of the Cebu City council for the exams to be held in the Visayas or Mindanao for examinees from the south.

“The Court resolved, upon the recommendation of the Office of the Bar Confidant, to refer this matter to the Committee on Bar Examinations for consideration,” read the order signed by lawyer Enriqueta Vidal, SC clerk of court.

The Office of Bar Confidant is a permanent, full-time office in the SC.

The OBC, headed by lawyer Cristina Layusa, provides administrative support for the exams and post-exam activities, starting from the filing of the petition to take the exams up to the signing in the Roll of Attorneys.

Since the grenade blast that marred the September 2010 Bar exams in De La Salle University in Manila, the annual licensure exams for lawyers have been conducted every October at the University of Santo Tomas, also in Manila.