THE THREE-DAY Bar examinations may test examinees individually, but Thomasian aspiring lawyers reached the finish line with a community behind them.
Through the traditional Bar hatid and salubong, UST students, administrators, alumni and volunteers mobilized to send off examinees, assist them at testing sites and welcome them back after months of preparation.
The UST Law Bar Operations coordinated the effort from distributing review materials and deploying volunteers to providing food, medicine and personalized assistance to examinees, while the Faculty of Civil Law Student Council (CLSC) cooperation ensured a smooth flow of the tradition.
“There are so many things that revolve around how a law student goes from studying, sitting in front of his desk, studying the law, and then the next day, he’s already taking the bar. The amount of pressure that that kind of environment puts you through,” CLSC President Jan Carlo Zamora told the Varsitarian.
“It takes a village to raise lawyers,” he added.
The CLSC coordinated with the administration on Bar-related activities and facilitated student participation, while UST Bar Operations handled on-the-ground preparations, including distribution, repacking and logistics.
Other local organizations took part in this initiative such as the UST Law Comelec, UST Law Review, and UST Law Debate and Moot Society, in a joint effort to support the examinees.
“Each organization has their own way of complementing the Bar Operations. It’s in the latter’s mandate to support the Bar examinees,” Zamora said.
“But again, the students, student organizations, the administration, and of course, alumni, they all work together to send off and to cheer and support the Bar examinees in every way possible,” he said.
UST Bar Operations also provided examinees with specialized review materials such as “Golden Notes,” “Questions Asked More than Once” and “Last Minute Tips” during their final preparations.
Led by Chairperson Earl Paula Cabigo, the organization deployed volunteer teams to every exam site and launched a “Bar Buddy” system to provide examinees with personalized assistance.
Cabigo said the salubong was more than a celebration marking the end of the examinations. It symbolized the University welcoming its aspiring lawyers home after months of preparation.
“The Bar Examination is one week, but to get there, marami pang pagdadaanan. […] It’s really a long journey of uncertainty, anxious moments, adrenaline—and the salubong is like a culmination that okay, we’re here, we’re ready to welcome you home again, and we’re waiting at the finish line,” Cabigo said.
(The Bar Examination is one week, but to get there, there is still a lot to go through. It’s really a long journey of uncertainty, anxious moments and adrenaline—and the salubong is like a culmination that says, okay, we’re here, we’re ready to welcome you home again, and we’re waiting at the finish line.)
Guided by its goal of “no Bar takers left behind,” UST Bar Operations introduced initiatives to extend support even to examinees assigned to other testing sites.
For Paul Samuel Robles, a Bar examinee and UST Faculty of Civil Law graduate, the support went beyond encouragement. Examinees were also provided with food, medicine and reviewers during the grueling examinations.
“It’s really just heartwarming. Honestly, going out, I thought I was just going to look for my parents, I was just going to look for my brothers,” Robles told the Varsitarian.
“But, seeing everyone so supportive, seeing everyone cheer was so heartwarming. I really don’t have any other words for it. I’m just grateful to everyone,” he said.
Zamora said the tradition recognizes not only the perseverance required to finish the Bar examinations but also the years of preparation and sacrifice behind them.
“Taking the Bar exams and finishing it, that’s another. And of course, what everyone hopes to be at the end of the day is to hurdle the Bar itself,” he said.
“So what we really just want to impart or at least leave when the Bar examinees see us while we support them is, of course, they would always know that the whole Thomasian community, the whole student body, the whole village, is behind them and supporting them, and is very proud of them already,” he said.
Zamora said the support was also about sustaining a culture that future batches of Thomasian lawyers could pass on.
“It’s more on passing it forward. It’s always about building the sense of community within the student body. It’s a way of support, because it’s not just students who flock to bar exam sites to support them [bar examinees],” he said.
He added that the effort was not motivated by reciprocity but by the desire to strengthen the legal profession.
“The whole community would really want to support the lawyers just to promote and to advance the idea that we really have to have more lawyers and more public servants.”
For Cabigo, simply reaching the examinations after the long preparation was already worth recognizing.
“Showing up is not stagnant; it keeps us moving forward,” she said. Elihoenai Hazael B. Cortez and Alejandro Mari E. Eusebio, with reports from Phoebe Elaine B. Pua
