UST WILL remain the venue of the Bar examinations this year, the Faculty of Civil Law has announced.
“The overwhelming majority of the law deans expressed their preference for UST [as this year’s bar exam venue] given its strategic location, wide grounds, excellent facilities, and tranquil atmosphere conducive to taking exams,” Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said, adding that no other schools were considered.
The Supreme Court en banc made the decision following the meeting of the Philippine Association of Law Schools last March 20.
The series of exams were moved to October this year from November. Political Law and Labor and Social Legislation will be the scope of exams on Oct. 7 while exams on Oct. 14 will cover Civil Law and Taxation. Mercantile Law and Criminal Law will be covered on Oct. 21. Remedial Law and Legal Ethics Practical Exercises will be the scope of exams on Oct. 28.
Associate Justice Martin Villarama is this year’s bar examination committee chairman.
Similar to last year’s exams, multiple-choice type of questions will have a weight of 60 percent, while essay-type questions, which will be given on the last day of exams, will weigh 40 percent. Classrooms at the Main, San Martin de Porres, Benavides, and St. Raymund de Peñafort buildings will again be used for the exams.
Divina said the Supreme Court decided to move the exam schedule a month earlier “to give more time to the examiners to check the papers since the Supreme Court decided to revert in part to the traditional essay question format.”
However, law schools filed a petition to retain the exam schedule in November.
“October is the month when final exams of law students are conducted [and] it is the tail-end of the typhoon season,” Divina said. Retaining the November schedule will also give time for students to prepare and adjust to the system, he said.
The Supreme Court has yet to decide on the petition, which was signed by law deans last March 22, Divina said.
More than 6,000 applicants trooped in the campus last November, which became the Bar exams venue for the first time. Nearly 32 percent or 1,913 out of 5,987 examinees passed, a significant improvement from the previous year’s 982 out of 4,847 passers or 20.26 percent. R. L. Antonio
