UST RECOVERED in the 2013 Bar examinations after a dismal performance the previous year, but there were still no Thomasians in the top 10 list.
The Faculty of Civil law posted a 63-percent passing rate, with 47 out of 75 examinees making the cut, results released by the Supreme Court showed. This was higher than 2012’s 48.57 percent, wherein only 34 out of 70 Thomasian examinees hurdled the Bar.
Leading this year’s new batch of lawyers is Nielson Pangan (85.80 percent) of the University of the Philippines (UP), followed by another UP alumnus, Mark Xavier Oyales, and Dianna Louise Wilwayco of Ateneo de Manila, who shared the second spot with identical scores of 85.45 percent.
The national passing rate improved to 22.18 percent, or 1,174 out of 5,293 examinees, from 2012’s 17.76 percent, the lowest since 2000 and the second lowest passing rate in history.
The Supreme Court reverted to the original exam format in which 80 percent were essay-type questions and 20 percent were multiple-choice questions. In 2012, multiple-choice questions accounted for 60 percent of the test, while essays accounted for 40 percent.
The high court lowered the cut-off score to 73 percent from 75 percent. With the passing rate at 75 percent, only 694 Bar candidates would have passed the exams.
The 2013 Bar exams was held in UST for the third consecutive year during all Sundays of October.
The new lawyers will have their oath-taking on April 28 at the Philippine International Convention Center. Celton F. Ramirez
