Carnival atmosphere and culture of utterly ruthless competition

What are we speaking about? Why the annual Bar exams, of course.

The stern invalidation by the Supreme Court of last Sunday’s examinations in Mercantile Law owing to the confirmation of a "leak" in the questions submitted by the Examiner has provoked loud controversy. In the torrent of indignant and self-righteous comment, however, there hasn’t been any doubt expressed that actual "cheating" had occurred. That’s what is clear.

Even President GMA, whose late father topped the 1936 Bar exams, though she herself is not a lawyer, had to assert that "cheating is a bad ticket to the law profession", and "a grave threat to the integrity of our system of justice".

The Supreme Court, on the recommendation of Justice Jose Vitug (this year’s Bar exams chairman), did the right thing in invalidating the Mercantile Law tests and ordering a new one taken next October 4. This development, naturally, will cost examinees who came all the way from the provinces an extra week of expense in food, transportation and lodging, but it can’t be helped.

This is not the first time the High Court rescheduled tests. The same thing was done in 1979 when the integrity of the exams in two subjects was also compromised.

Quite a number of examinees have raised a howl, demanding that the Supreme Court reconsider its ruling to invalidate the test. Being compelled to repeat a tough Bar examination is admittedly difficult, but those who protest ought to realize that they court the suspicion that they were the ones who benefited from the leak. And so, there’s no recourse but to bite the bullet, and retake the exams.

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In the meantime, perusing the comments made on the fiasco concerning one of the eight Bar subjects, I see that there have been many "cries for blood" seeking the punishment of supposed culprits. Not one single pejorative or negative comment has been made on the ferocity of the culture of competition which has developed over the years, and surely contributed to the irregularities which marred these most prestigious tests given by a government to gain admission to a licensed profession.

This "culture" is underwritten by the law schools themselves (particularly the elite law colleges) as well as Law deans, professors and Bar reviewers, all lusting for one of their graduates to "top" the Bar, while others flying their colors also dominate the Top Ten. This should be laudatory as a drive for excellence, but carried to the extreme it has deteriorated into an almost unscrupulous competition to outstrip rival institutions at all costs, in order that one of their manoks can top the lists, while the school itself garners the highest percentage of passing among its graduates.

To attain these goals, a strategy entitled "Bar Operations" has been established. The Bar Operators "service" and cater to the needs of the most promising examinees, who are quartered in 5-star hotels from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning during the four Sundays in September during which the exams are taken.

There’s a lavish Saturday lunch hosted by the law schools and alumni for their graduates. Then, the contenders are bussed from their Bar review sites to their respective hotels. The following morning, they are ferried from their hotels to De La Salle University on Taft Avenue where the exams are conducted. In sum, for their brief period in the sun, the examinees are given the same glamour boy treatment accorded basketball stars in the run-up to the NBA championships.

Looking at Bar Operations more closely, what do they entail? The examinees are quartered two to a room in a luxury hotel. The Bar Operations group commandos are also quartered – this time in a room aptly dubbed the "war room". This support group provides the examinees with review materials, such as summaries of Supreme Court decisions which could be topics of the Bar questions the following day. More importantly, the members of the Bar Operations detail, who are mostly undergraduates, alumni and law professors, search everywhere for "tips", meaning an inside-look into questions "sure" to be asked in the next day’s tests. How the search for "tips" is undertaken depends on the resourcefulness of those who comprise this Group.

After the exams on the final Sunday, a carnival atmosphere descends on the campus of De La Salle. It’s fiesta time! Rooters and fraternity brethren, backed up by the rousing music of a brass band, cheer the examinees as they emerge from the building. Firecrackers explode, imbuing the entire scene with a colorful New Year’s aspect. Last year, there was even a bevy of "Sex-Bomb dancers" gyrating in their scanties on an improvised stage.

It’s no wonder, some might remark, our justice system has deteriorated into a strip-tease and a carnival. The products of a system that conducts all-out "war" in a no-holds-barred competition to cop the prize, coupled with the finale of hubba-hubba yells from the same type of crowds who once cheered the bloodied gladiators as they emerged from the sanded arena of the Colosseum, are not reminded of the dignity and integrity which should characterize the Bar exams. The message given them is: Win at any cost. Or else, receive the "thumbs down" roar of disapproval from the mob.

The law profession was not always thus. My wife and I, coming from a family of lawyers ourselves, are somewhat aghast at the mercenary ways of some pampered "new" lawyers who’re palpably bent on gaining their attorney’s fees and other "fees" the fast and easy way. They haven’t shrugged off the Bar Operations philosophy and carnival atmosphere off yet. Even after they become prosecutors and judges someday, we fear they never will.

It’s time to re-examine our priorities – and ourselves.

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The hearings regarding "bail" for the detained Ramon "Eki" Cardenas ought to be conducted with dispatch by RTC Judge Oscar Pimentel who was finally raffled the case.

Without commenting on the merits, I don’t see why bail shouldn’t be granted without undue delay – unless the government is exerting extra effort to skewer the former Senior Deputy Executive Secretary by loading the dice against him.

Since he was arrested immediately after the Oakwood affair last July, and unfairly paraded before media cameras in a yellow detainee’s shirt, giving the world the impression that Cardenas was already "guilty" when there was only the flimsiest of circumstantial "evidence" (perhaps even planted) against him, he has been detained in Camp Crame. Getting out on bail will give Eki time and opportunity to organize his defense. The trouble is that the government seems to be attempting to squeeze him in order to "force" him to implicate his former boss, ex-President Joseph Estrada, in the Oakwood "mutiny" and any other alleged plots to overthrow the Macapagal-Arroyo government.

Last week, the six government prosecutors submitted a 200-page tract composed of "so-called" new evidence, springing it by surprise on Cardenas’ lawyers without giving them time to study it. The Department of Justice even amended the charge from "rebellion" to "coup d’ etat" . (They’re still frenziedly attempting, it seems, to "consolidate" poor Cardenas’s case with that of the Oakwood mutineers.) Thus far, the move appears to be a no-brainer.

C’mon. The government must play fair. The only saving grace is that Pimentel has the reputation of being a good and even-handed judge. The next very essential ingredient needed is courage. Further this columnist sayeth not.

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In the past couple of days, I’ve talked with two ranking service commanders and they’ve assured me that, in the absence of the President (who’s by this time headed for Rome), the situation in the military is calm and very much under "control".

I’m not sure the appointment of former Batangas congressman and retired AFP general Ed Ermita has been greeted with universal acclaim in our armed forces, as the Palace propagandists and his own "hallelujah" machine are grinding out. Ever since he went to Tripoli (Libya) as the youthful Senior Military Aide of the late Defense Undersecretary Carmelo Z. Barbero and the ex-First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, to witness the signing of the giveaway Tripoli Agreement, with Libyan Strongman Moammar Ghadaffi in the latter’s Tent, Ermita has been so soft in his dealings with Muslim rebels, particularly the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that he has been accused of belonging to the Surrender Gang.

Moreover, Ermita used to have the reputation of being the faithful squire of ex-President and former Defense Secretary/AFP Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos. Emerging from FVR’s shadow has, over the years, been a difficult thing. Contrary to popular misimpression, and his own cheerful press releases, FVR was never "popular" with the soldiers and their officers – and the fact that, in the six years of his Presidency (which were hailed by and large by the civilian population) FVR didn’t do much to modernize, re-equip and upgrade our armed forces, is well-recalled in the ranks of our military.

This sour attitude inevitably must have rubbed off on Eddie’s "clone", Ermita.

In this light, I hope that now he’s formally been anointed to that pivotal post – one important not merely to GMA’s survival but to that of the Republic – Ermita will shape up and show more chutzpah and moxie. Sure, we want peace with the MILF and other insurgents. However, we cannot be blind to the fact that the MILF has been working in too close a collaboration with other Islamic radicals in the neighborhood – including the murderous Jemaah Islamiyah. If Ermita’s still a sucker for the MILF’s "peace propaganda", as he’s deplorably demonstrated in the past, then he’s not cut out for the DND job.

Ed: The eyes of the nation are upon you. And so are the eyes of the Armed Forces.