THERE was no Thomasian topnotcher in the 2003 bar exams, but the Faculty of Civil Law expressed satisfaction at the improved bar results, as UST earned a 55.69 per cent passing rate compared to last year’s 48 percent.
Faculty records show that out of 94 Thomasians, 59 passed the bar, 44 of whom were first takers and 15, retakers. This was an improvement from last year’s 48 percent, with 49 bar passers out of 102.
According to the Faculty of Civil Law Secretary, lawyer Lowell Culling, they were expecting higher results from the bar takers.
“The exams are as always very difficult, but we expected higher results because our students are very good in civil law. But then again considering the fiasco regarding the leakage in the mercantile law examinations, this year’s exams were exceptionally difficult. But in the end, the results are satisfactory,” Culling said.
Last year’s bar exams became controversial after a leakage was discovered in Mercantile Law. The Supreme Court decided to nullify the exam and then allocated its 15 percentage points to the seven other bar exam subjects.
Culling said the bar review for the students for this year’s bar exams will be as rigorous as before, in the hope that UST would replicate the feat of 2002 bar topnotcher Atty. Arlene Maneja in topping the bar.
“Every year we hope that our students would land in the top ten. It’s every law school’s ambition. But then again we can only do so much. In the end, it all depends on the students,” Culling said.
In the 2003 bar exams, Aeneas Eli Diaz of Ateneo de Manila University topped the bar with an 88.5310 percent score.
Out of the 5,349 examinees, only 1,108 passed the exams for a 20.71 percent national passing rate.
Records from the Office of the Bar Confidant showed 917 out of 4,659 examinees passed the 2002 exams for a 19.68 percent passing rate. In 2001, 1,266 out of 3,849 examinees passed (32.89 per cent passing rate). In 2000, 20.84 per cent or 979 out of 4,698 hurdled the bar exams.
