PHILIPPINE BAR EXAM TRIVIA
Some interesting Philippine Bar trivia
The first ever bar exams was held in 1901, with 11 examinees taking the test. Acing it was former President Manuel Roxas.
The 2001 Bar Exams had the highest ever passing rate with 1,266 out of the 3,849 total examinees making the grade or passing gate of almost 32.89 percent.
The 1999 Bar Exams can be considered as the most deadly for law examinees as it only produced 660 lawyers or a passing rate of only 16.59 percent.
The 2007 Bar Exams would have been the all time low in terms of passing had not its chairman, Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, lowered the passing rate to 70 percent..
The reduction in the passing rate was ordered by Justice Azcuna as only 5 percent (only around 300) of the 5,626 who took the 2007 Bar Exams got the passing grade of 75 percent.
Thus the SC adjusted the standard to 70 percent and the disqualification rate in 3 subjects (civil, labor and criminal law) from 50 to 45 percent thus resulting in a 22.91 passing rate or survival of 1,289 lawyer examinees.
This reduction in the passing grade is highly unusual as it only happened once in the 1981 Bar Exams when the passing grade was lowered to 72.5 percent
Prior to 1982, the passing mark jumped unpredictably from year to year: 69.45 percent in 1946; 69 in 1947; 70 in 1948, 1963, 1972 and 1974; 71 in 1961; 71.5 in 1953, 1964 and 1965; 72 in 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1967; 72.5 in 1954, 1962 and 1981; 73 in 1950, 1956, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1975, 1978 and 1980; 73.5 in 1955 and 1979; 74 in 1949, 1951, 1952, 1966, 1971, 1973 and 1977; and 74.5 in 1976.
In 1954, the SC lowered the passing grade to 72.5 percent, even if the passing percentage was already at its highest at 75.17 percent.
In 1999, moves to lower the passing grade to 74 percent failed, after Justice Fidel Purisima, bar committee chairman, failed to disclose that his nephew took the examination. He was censured and his honoraria was reduced to half.
High passing rates marked the post World War II years with grades ranging from 56 to 72 percent.
But that state of things was not to last long as Associate Justice J.B.L. Reyes, a noted scholar, was appointed Chairman of the 1955 Bar Examinations in which the passing rate for that year dropped dramatically to 26.8 percent with a mortality rate of 73.2 percent. That ratio has been invariably maintained in the past 52 years or more.
The only two bar examinees to top the bar exams without graduating from any Philippine law school were former senator Jose Diokno, who tied for first place in the 1945 Bar with former senator Jovito Salonga, and retired Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Carolina C. Griño-Aquino, who chaired the three-man investigating panel looking into the Court of Appeals (CA) impropriety and bribery controversy. She who was the first placer in the 1950 Bar Exams.
The 2005 Bar exams marked the first time that the “five-strike†rule was enforced. The “five-strike†rule limits to five the maximum number of times a candidate may take the examinations.
It was also this year that the three-failure rule was also implemented which requires a three time flunker to retake fourth year review classes and pass before retaking the bar exams.
Among all bar topnotchers, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Florenz D. Regalado holds the highest grade of 96.7 percent in 1954. Former senator Tecla San Andres-Ziga became the first woman to top the bar with a score of 89.4 percent in 1930.
The Philippine President who got the highest score as a topnotcher was Ferdinand Marcos with 92.35 percent average in 1939.
In 1945, Jovito Salonga and Jose W. Diokno tied the highest score of 95.3 percent. The only other instance of a tie at first place of the bar exams was when Edwin Enrile (salutatorian of his Ateneo Law School class) and Florin Hilbay (an honor student of the UP College of Law) both garnered the same score in 1999.
Ateneo Law School's Mercedita L. Ona, got the lowest passing grade of 83.55% in 2007, which erased the prior record of 84.10 percent, obtained by Adolfo Brillantes of Escuela de Derecho de Manila (now Manila Law College Foundation) in 1920.
No bar examinee has ever reached a 100 percent general average, but several bar examinees have garnered perfect and near-perfect grades in specific bar subjects.
In 1949, Anacleto C. Mañgaser of the Philippine Law School earned 100% in Mercantile Law, and placed 1st in the bar exams of that year. His average of 95.85% broke all prior records before it was bested by Florenz Regalado in 1954.
In 1953, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile of the University of the Philippines College of Law earned 100 percent in Taxation Law and placed 11th in the bar exams of that year.
In 1955, incumbent Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Raul Gonzalez of the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law earned 99 percent in Remedial Law and 95 percent in International Law. However, he did not make it to the top 10.
In 1997, Maria Celia H. Fernandez of the University of the Philippines College of Law earned 100 percent in Legal Ethics and emerged as the year's bar topnotcher.
In 2001, Rodolfo Ma. A. Ponferrada, that year's valedictorian of the University of the Philippines College of Law obtained perfect scores of 100 percent in Remedial Law, the highest weighted of the bar subjects, as well as Criminal Law. The difference (3.75 percent) between his final bar examination score (93.80 percent) and that of the second-placer, Jesus Paolo U. Protacio (90.05 percent), that year's valedictorian of the Ateneo de Manila Law School, is the highest of all time. That year's valedictorian of the San Beda College of Law, Adonis V. Gabriel, placed 8th (88.25 percent). This 3.75 percent difference eclipsed the previous highest difference of 2.10 percent registered in 1966 when Roberto V. San Jose (valedictorian of the UP College of Law) garnered a grade of 90.6 percent versus the 88.5 percent of the tied second placers, Ruben F. Balane (salutatorian of the UP College of Law) and Pablo S. Trillana III (valedictorian of the San Beda College of Law).
In 2005, Gladys V. Gervacio of the University of Perpetual Help-Rizal earned 100 percent in two bar subjects -- Legal Ethics and Labor Law. She placed 6th in the bar exams of that year.
All throughout the bar exams history, only 12 law schools managed to produce 1st placers in the bar examinations.
The University of the Philippines College of Law has the most number of bar topnotchers with 49 topping the exam, followed by Ateneo de Manila Law School with 19, Philippine Law School and San Beda College of Law with 6, University of Manila College of Law with 4 bar, Far Eastern University Institute of Law and University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law with 3 bar, University of the Cordilleras (formerly Baguio Colleges Foundation) College of Law and Manuel L. Quezon University College of Law with 2, Manila Law College Foundation (formerly Escuela de Derecho de Manila), Divine Word College and the University of the East College of Law with one bar topnotcher each.
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