EASIER, FEWER QUESTIONS, LENIENT CORRECTION DON’T EXPLAIN MANILA SHUTOUT

Since the Supreme Court released last May 3 the 2016 bar examination results, there has been a lot of speculation on the reason for (1) the highest passing percentage in decades (59.09%) and (2) the total exclusion of Manila bar passers from the much-coveted Magic 10 circle, with Cebu’s University of San Carlos leading the pack of out-oftowners in it.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., chairman of the 2016 bar exams committee, has been credited for the abnormally high number of passers.

He was reported to have repeatedly said (announced in a room-to-room sortie) that questions would be fewer and “reasonable” and answers would be credited even if they were wrong. From the start, even before the actual exam month, he had been saying his goal was to have a high passing percentage.

Stars aligned

OK, that explains the almost 60% bar takers who hurdled it. But it doesn’t tell us why, with the relatively easy questions and the generous mood in the grading, Manilans grabbed not a single Top 10 slot. They fumbled because the questions were not tough enough?

Bar Confidant Christina Layusa said it happened before but she admitted it was “a first in decades.”

What Cebu and other prov- inces pulled could be a fluke. The 10-0 score could just be a random win, a once-in-a-blue moon incident. A case when the stars aligned: “from-the-province” law schools, including one from Laoag and another from Dipolog, zoomed from darkness and obscurity to help Cebu, Dumaguete and Davao light up the heavens.

Maybe. Results in future exams may help solve the “puzzler.” What is no mystery is that USC, with its 2016 bar performance, on top of its earlier successes, firmly validated its position as one of the best law schools in the country. And a Cebuana made history in the law community and the rest of the nation.