Nov. 27 2016, 12:48 p.m. – THE LAST day of the 2016 Bar Examinations held at UST saw tighter security enforcement, following the recent brawl between two Thomasian law fraternities on campus.
Sr. Supt. Bartolome Bustamante, chief of the directorial staff of the Manila Police District, said police needed to make sure the Nov. 9 fistfight won’t happen again. Members of the UST fraternities involved had been suspended.
“We will be beefing up our strength, our security force, to ensure na walang masasaktan,” Bustamante said in an interview with the Varsitarian.
“We will minimize ‘yung [pagpasok ng spectators ng schools dito sa España Boulevard] para [hindi] ma-disrupt yung free flow of traffic,” he said.
A total of 350 security personnel from the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, the judicial security force, the coast guard and bomb experts were stationed in UST.
Bustamante said 100 more police officers would be dispersed in the afternoon.
Aside from the Nov. 9 incident in front of the Main Building and carpark between the Aegis Juris and Gamma Delta Epsilon fraternities, Bustamante said police had recorded “conflicts” between fraternities from the University of the Philippines-Diliman and Ateneo de Manila, but these took place outside the UST campus.
A total of 6,848 examinees attended the last day of examinations.
UST Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said there was a huge chance the University would host the exams again next year for the seventh consecutive year.
“The Supreme Court and the law deans are happy with UST as venue so I will not be surprised if UST will again be the venue next year,” Divina said.
