Sun Star Cebu
Petitions are being circulated to urge the Supreme Court (SC) to hold
bar examinations outside Metro Manila. Cebu is being pushed as a venue for the exams.
Dean Baldomero Estenzo of the University of Cebu College of Law said holding the bar in Metro Manila “prejudices candidates†residing in Visayas and Mindanao, because the cost of living in the capital is high.
Speaking at a Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) seminar, he cited the effect last September’s Typhoon Ondoy had on examinees.
The floods forced a one-week extension of the test. Students from the provinces, with money just enough for the original four-week schedule, bore the added pressure of finding money.
Law students from at least three non-Manila-based law schools have signed a petition asking the SC to make the necessary changes, Estenzo said.
Two are from Cebu City, the colleges of law of the University of Cebu (UC) and the University of the Visayas (UV). One is from Mindanao, the Xavier Law School in Cagayan de Oro.
Over 60 other lawyers from the Visayas and Mindanao have signed their own petition seeking the transfer to Cebu.
The University of Cebu’s Banilad Campus, where its College of Law is based, is being offered as venue, free of charge.
Lawyer Michael Yu, Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter president, said he will include the petition signed by the lawyers in the next board meeting.
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