EVEN without a bar placer for three consecutive years, Faculty of Civil Law Dean Augusto Aligada, Jr. is satisfied with UST’s 2005 Bar Exam over-all passing rate.
Aligada said the Faculty gives more emphasis on having a high rate of passing than producing top nothcers.
“If only a few of our examinees passed, that means we failed, but if many passed, what can I complain of?,” Aligada said. “I’m satisfied having 106 (passers) in the (Bar) exam.”
Based on the Faculty’s estimate, 76 out of 105 Thomasians who took the exams for the first time bar passed registering a 72.38 per cent passing rate. A total of 106 Thomasians hurdled the 2005 Bar Exams. Civil Law professor Arlene Maneja topped the 2002 Bar Exams, was the last Thomasian in the Bar top ten.
Last year, UST posted a 71.91 per cent passing rate. As of press time, the Supreme Court has not released the University’s official passing rate.
Civil Law faculty secretary Atty. Lowell Culling said the Faculty is aiming for a higher passing rate next year.
Among those who passed were former Varsitarian Special Reports editor Ma. Cecilia Fernandez-Samson and working scholar Jean Celso passed the bar exam. Fernandez-Samson earned her law degree from UST, while Celso graduated from the University of Batangas.
Of the record 5,610 examinees, 1,526 passed for a 27.2 per cent national passing rate. In 2004, the national passing rate was 31.61 per cent.
According to the Rules of Court, an examinee should attain an average grade of 75 without receiving a grade of below 50 in any of the eight areas covered: Political and International Law; Labor and Social Legislation; Civil Law; Remedial Law; Criminal Law; Taxation; and Legal Ethics and Practical exercises.
The exams, given during the four Sundays of September 2005, also marked the first time that the “five-strike” rule is being implemented pursuant to Bar Matter 1161. Under the rule, a bar applicant can only take the bar exams five times. After flunking for the third time, a bar hopeful will have to take a one-year refresher course if he wants to have a fourth shot at passing the bar. Failing for the fifth time bars the applicant from taking another exam. April Dawn Jennifer C. Adriatico
