November: Bar examination month
November each year is the bar examination month in the Philippines. It is the professional licensure examination required before anyone can practice law in our country. It is administered by the Supreme Court through the bar examination Committee headed by an incumbent member of the SC. A bar candidate should obtain a passing average of 75 percent and no grade must be lower than 50 percent in any bar subject. There were years when the passing average was lowered to admit more new lawyers, particularly when the actual results showed low passing average. The scope of the bar exams covers eight law subjects, which are separately graded. each contribute to the general average with remedial Law carrying the biggest weight at 20 percent and Legal ethics and Practical exercises at 5 percent.
It’s considered one of the toughest board exams that examinees become prayerful and devotees of religious saints. It’s not uncommon to see examinees joining pilgrimages to Manaoag, Baclaran and Antipolo to petition for a successful Bar result.
The first Bar exam was held in 1901. The third Bar exam held in 1903 was topped by Jose Quintos with a rating of 96.33 percent. In the same batch notably were Sergio Osmena, second placer, with a rating of 95.66 percent and Manuel L. Quezon, fourth placer, with a rating of 87.83 percent. Three presidents— Manuel A. Roxas, Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos—were
the Bar topnotchers (the examinee who garnered the highest grade in a particular year) of their batch. The late Sen. Jose W. Diokno topped both the CPA Board examination and the Bar Examination. He tied with former Senate President Jovito Salonga for first place during the 1944 Bar examination with a rating of 95.3 percent. The only other time there was a tie for No. 1 in the Bar exam was in 1999 when Edwin Enrile of Ateneo de Manila and Florin Hilbay of University of the Philippines both scored a rating of 88.5 percent. The lowest rating obtained by a topnotcher is 83.5 percent posted by the first placer Mercedita L. Ona of Ateneo de
Manila in 2007. The ratings obtained do not necessarily reflect the degree of difficulty of the Bar examination and are not comparable as the quality of questions varies each year. A better gauge may be the percentage of passing or the mortality rate. The 1999 Bar Examination recorded the lowest passing rate at 16.59 percent. The passing rate in the 1954 Bar Exam was 75.17 percent, an alltime high in the history of the Bar. A candidate is disqualified to take the Bar after failing in three examinations, but he may be permitted to take the fourth and fifth examinations if he successfully completes a one-year refresher course for each examination. The SC in 2005 introduced the “5-strike rule” which disqualifies five-time flunkers from taking future Bar examination. The UP has produced 49 Bar topnotchers; Ateneo, 22; and San Beda, 8. Former SC Justice Florenz Regalado of San Beda has obtained the highest rating of 96.7 percent in the history of the Bar.
A father and son both copped first place in the Bar exam. Former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee obtained the highest rating in 1940, while his son, Manuel J. Teehankee, got 91.40 percent which was the highest rating in the 1983 Bar exam. A nephew of CJ Teehankee, Enrique Teehankee, also placed No. 1 in the 1976 Bar exam with a rating of 90.8 percent. A husband and wife also figured prominently in the Bar exams. Justice Ramon Aquino placed ninth in 1939, while his wife
Carolina Griño-Aquino was No. 1 in 1950. Both served as Associate Justices of the SC. Siblings Manuel Zamora (1961) and Ronaldo Zamora (1969) placed third and first in their respective Bar examinations.
The first woman Bar topnotcher with a rating of 89.4 percent was Tecla San Andres Ziga of UP, who later served as a senator of the Philippines. She was followed by Cecilia Muñoz-Palma of UP (92.6 percent) in 1937 who later became the first woman Associate Justice of the SC. Several women have landed in the first place as more women, the best and the brightest, get admitted to law schools.
There are years when Bar examinations were marred by scandals as when a leakage reportedly occurred. This happened during my time in 1979 Bar when the SC ordered a retake of the examination in Labor Law. We were asked to sit for another Sunday to do a repeat exam in the said subject. Again in 2003, the SC ordered a retake of the Mercantile Law exam due to questionnaire leakage.
SHORTLY after the results of the Bar Examination were released, a Bar flunker immediately texted his parents who were preparing to hold a grand celebration of his successful passing of the Bar in their village. In a true lawyerly fashion befitting a Bar topnotcher, the text reads: “Hold in abeyance the roasting of the calf. Fatten it some more for next year. The calf ’s petition was granted, while our prayers were denied.”