THE VALEDICTORIAN of UST Faculty of Civil Law Class of 2024 led the fresh crop of Thomasian lawyers, results of the 2024 Bar examinations released by the Supreme Court on Friday showed.
UST alumnus Andrew Ambray, who graduated magna cum laude and at the top of his class, landed on the No. 12 spot with a score of 83.44%
“When I learned that I was one of the topnotchers, I felt happy, of course, and relieved. Graduating as the batch valedictorian and having Atty. Ephraim Bie as my predecessor brought great pressure,” Ambray told the Varsitarian.
“I am just glad that everything ended well, and I still (hopefully) made UST proud. I am also proud of our batch’s performance. It is nice to know that a lot became #MostValuableLawyers today.”
Another Thomasian, Pierre Reque II, landed in the top 20, placing 20th nationwide with an 82.79% score. He shared the spot with Charles Lijauco of the University of the Philippines (UP).
UST emerged as the fourth top-performing school in the 2024 Bar examinations, in which it posted an 80.35% passing rate (139 of 173). This marked a decrease from the 85.25% rating (104 of 122) UST recorded in 2023.
Ateneo de Manila University was named the top school for those that fielded 100 or more examinees, logging a 96.02% passing rate (169 of 176).
Ateneo de Davao University topped schools that had 51 to 100 examinees (52 of 55; 94.55%), while West Visayas State University led schools that had 11 to 50 examinees (12 of 13; 92.31%).
Kyle Tutor of UP led the 3,962 new lawyers after scoring 85.77%
Former Varsitarian special reports editor Lea Vicencio, literary writer Hailord Lavarias, and news writer Angelika Ortega were among the newly minted lawyers.
The national passing rate inched higher to 37.84% (3,962 passers) from 36.77% (3,812 passers out of 10,387 examinees) in 2023.
The 2024 Bar exams were held on Sept. 8, 11 and 15.
