Thousands of Cebuanos are now in Manila to take the Bar Examinations, the 114th Bar Examinations being held since it started in 1901. In accordance with law, this year's Bar, as usual, is being administered by the Supreme Court, under the chairmanship of a career jurist, Madam Associate Justice Teresita J Leonardo-de Castro. The exams will be held in the hallowed campus of the University of Sto Tomas where I have been a member in its Faculty of Civil Law for many years. There will be eight subjects, with two subjects every Sunday until November 29. No less than 7,146 candidates are taking the Bar this year. My bold prediction is that only 20% may make it this time or approximately only 1,430 future lawyers.
The eight subjects and their schedules are as follows: for November 8, Political Law and Labor Law; for November 15, Civil Law and Taxation; for November 22, Mercantile Law and Criminal Law, and on the last Sunday, November 29, Remedial Law and Legal Ethics. For the last twenty-five years or so, I have been directly involved in the preparations as Bar Reviewer in more than ten universities' Law Schools all over the country. To as far north as the University of Cordillera in Baguio City to UM in as far south as the cities of Davao and Gensan. Yesterday, I gave a last-minute lecture for UV Gullas Law School upon the request of Dean Justice Portia Hormachelos.
One sad thing about the Bar is that the playing field is not level. The Bar candidates from the top law schools in Manila have distinct advantages over the barristers from the provinces. The most disadvantaged sectors are the working students, most especially those who are married, with families to support, and with full-time jobs to attend to while staying awake late at night. I should know. I was a working student all the way, being a son of a poor family with eight children. I used to work as Court Interpreter and I had to walk from the City Hall to UV every five in the afternoon to attend my classes at 530 until 930 at night for four years. I was living in a squatters' area with no electricity and no running water. It was a very hard life. But I passed the bar with a rating of 84.93% without having taken any Pre-Bar Review.
Bar topnotchers used to always come from UP, Ateneo, San Beda, UST until one Oscar Glovasa from Bohol broke the record. He finished law in the University of Bohol and topped the 1968 Bar Exams. He was the first graduate from a law school outside Manila who got the first place in the Bar. There were many Cebuano graduates who topped the Bar but they finished their law studies in Manila. The Philippine presidents who got the number one place in the Bar are Manuel A Roxas (UP) in 1913 (92%); Diosdado Macapagal (UST) 89.65% in 1936; and Ferdinand E Marcos (UP), 92.35% in 1939. Don Sergio S Osmeña (UST) got second place in 1903, while Manuel L Quezon got fourth place in the same Bar in 1903, and Carlos P Garcia (Phil Law School) got sixth place in 1923.
Franklin M Drilon got third place in 1969, while Miriam D Santiago who took the same Bar did not get any top spot. Jose W Diokno did not have any law degree. He did not go to any law school at all, but he topped the Bar in 1944. Jovito Salonga, an outstanding law student in UP tied with Diokno with a rating of 95.3%. Diokno also topped the CPA Board at the age of 17. Ferdinand E Marcos allegedly got 98.5% but the Court lowered it to 92.35% because of alleged suspicion of some leakage, which has never been proven to be true. The great Claro M Recto flunked the Bar in 1913. He wrote books in Civil Law where he got very low scores. The next year, he made it with flying colors. The first female bar topnotcher was Tecla San Andres Ziga from UP (89.40%), and the second one was Cecila Munoz-Palma also from UP (92%). The only woman who garnered the highest score was Florenz Regalado of San Beda (96.7%) in 1954.