80 percent flunk 2009 Bar exams

LESS than 20 percent of those who took the 2009 Bar examinations passed.

A source of The Manila Times said over the weekend that only 17 percent actually passed the tests for would-be lawyers, but added the Supreme Court would hold a special meeting this week on whether this percentage would be increased.

The source added that the release of the results of the 2009 Bar examinations should have been made on March 19 on Friday. He cited 2009 Bar Examinations Chairman and Supreme Court Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura asking Chief Justice Reynato Puno for a special en banc session.

The release did not materialize after the Office of the Bar Confidant disclosed that they had not finished computing and tallying the grades.

“There was a delay in the release because it was harder to compute the grades coming from 16 examiners as compared to eight examiners [in the past],” the source said.

There also was a proposal to abolish the current system of having 16 examiners and return to the old system of having eight examiners for the eight subjects in the Bar examinations.

Under the old system, there was one examiner per subject but under the new, there were two per subject.

During an interview, Nachura told The Manila Times that they were not able to release the results last week because the Office of the Bar Confidant was not yet ready.

Nachura said that the results could be released this week at the earliest or before the summer sessions of the High Court in Baguio City this April.

The Manila Times source said that the killer subjects in 2009 Bar examinations were Taxation and Civil Law.

A total of 6,080 law graduates took last year’s tests that were held on all four Sundays of September 2009.

Because of Typhoon Ondoy, the examinations for Remedial Law and Legal and Practical Exercises were conducted on the first week of October 2009.

A total of 1,310 out of 6,364 examinees, representing 20.58 percent of the total number of examinees from 108 law schools nationwide, passed the 2008 Bar examinations.

The Rules of Court provide that “a candidate may be deemed to have passed his examinations if he has obtained a general average of 75 percent in all subjects without falling below 50 percent in any subject.”

In determining the average, subjects in the examinations are given relative weights: Political and International Law, 15 percent; Labor and Social Legislation, 10 percent; Civil Law, 15 percent; Taxation, 10 percent; Mercantile Law, 15 percent; Criminal Law, 10 percent; Remedial Law, 20 percent; and Legal Ethics and Practical Exercises, 5 percent, for a total of 100 percent.

The first Bar examinations were held in 1901, with 13 examinees. In 1954, not only the highest grade (96.7 percent) was recorded by an examinee but also the record-high passing rate of 74 percent. –JOMAR CANLAS Reporter, Manial Times