183 Shari’ah Bar passers take oath today

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) will administer today the oath-taking of 183 examinees who passed the 2024 Shari’ah Bar examinations.

The ceremony will start at 2 p.m. at the Manila Hotel, after which the signing of the roll of attorneys will follow.

The Bar examinations were conducted on April 28 and May 2 at the Ateneo de Davao University in Davao City and at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

According to Shari’ah Bar chairman SC Associate Justice Maria Filomena Singh, this year’s exams were the first to be digitalized and regionalized. It is also the first time the exam was chaired by a sitting member of the high court.

The examinations were conducted online, but most of the examinees still took the tests manually, using pen and paper, at the UP’s Malcolm Theater.

Subjects covered in the two-day examinations were jurisprudence (Figh) and customary laws (Adat); persons, family relations and property; succession, wills or adjudication and settlement of estates as well as procedure in the Shari’ah courts.

The exams are administered to allow Muslim professionals to qualify and practice before the Shari’ah courts in the Philippines constituted under Presidential Decree 1083.

Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo earlier urged Shari’ah Bar passers to take the Philippine Bar examinations for them to become full-fledged lawyers. Shari’ah Bar passers are sworn in as counselors-at-law.