PASSING THE BAR EXAMINATIONS: A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

When I took the bar exams in 2003, I never really thought I would be able to hurdle the most dreaded examination every aspiring law student has to take before being allowed to practice the legal profession. I mean, come to think of this: eight subjects spread throughout four grueling Sundays of September — political and international law, labor law, civil law, taxation, mercantile law, criminal law, remedial law and legal ethics. In addition to the voluminous legal provisions that one should learn by heart, he has to read the numerous Supreme Court decisions interpreting and applying the various laws. Yes, it is no joke. The study of law requires the dedication and determination to overcome the pressures that go along with it. Indeed, every barrister must see to it that he is physically, mentally, spiritually and psychologically prepared before venturing into the realm of the uncertain.

In my case, it was quite different. Coming as I was from an unknown law school in the Visayas, I had no illusions of passing the bar with flying colors. It is an admitted fact that bar topnotchers almost always come from the more popular law schools in the country — UP, Ateneo, San Beda and UST. All I wanted was to get that minimum grade of 75. And to me that was enough. Period.

To at least assure me of a fighting chance against what seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle, I enrolled at the U.P. Bar Review Center which at that time offered review classes in Cebu City. I would have wanted to go immediately to Manila to acquaint myself with the surroundings prior to taking the exam but financial constraints hindered me from doing so. This initial difficulty however inspired me to do more than the usual. I thought, what advantage really do these students from imperial Manila have over promdis like me except for the discriminatory label? After all, we read the same books. We digest the same jurisprudence. So what’s the big fuss about their alleged intellectual superiority over the low profile students from the Visayas and Mindanao?

The true test came, I think, a month before the exams. Prior to my arrival in Manila, I was already feeling sick due to a persistent toothache that wouldn’t go away. At first I just dismissed it as something psychosomatic, that probably the pain was merely due to intense mental and psychological pressure. Upon my wife’s suggestion, I went to see a dentist who right away recommended a tooth extraction. And that was 9 days before the first Sunday! Hesitantly, I had no choice but to have the infected tooth pulled. The dentist assured me that everything would work out fine as long as I complete the seven-day antibiotic medication. I did and felt good as the days rolled on. Or so I thought.

Thinking that I was physically back to normal, I did not bother to get enough rest and instead engrossed myself, with the help of my wife, to last-minute readings just to have that “confidence” going into the first Sunday of the dreaded exam. As expected, the first Sunday was nerve-racking but I coasted through it determined and motivated to accomplish my personal mission.

Surprisingly when I woke up the following morning, I no longer recognized my face on the mirror. It was as if Manny Pacquiao gave me a devastating right hook the night before only to wake up the next day with a swollen left face. My suspicions then led me to conclude that it had something to do with that pesky tooth extracted by the dentist more than a week before.

I was right. The area where the infected tooth lay developed a massive abscess. My swollen face was so full of pus that the dentist, in consultation with an ENT doctor, advised me not to proceed with the last three Sundays of the exam. They explained that they had to subject me to an emergency operation to precisely remove the pus that was getting bigger by the hour. Otherwise, the pus would ultimately reach my brain and cause me to fall into coma. In other words, I was in real danger of succumbing into a prolonged state of unconsciousness!

Upon hearing the doctors’ explanations, it felt like I was being made to choose between my life and my dream of becoming a lawyer. Of course, I could always retake the exam the following year but I could not imagine myself failing for not continuing! To explain the unexplainable, something “inside” was egging me to continue the fight. It was then that I pleaded with the doctors if they could figure out a less invasive way than literally place me under the knife. Sensing that they could not force me to have an operation, they told me that they would instead administer intravenous (IV) antibiotics to hopefully lessen and/or control the swelling but not after requiring me to execute a waiver that they would no longer be responsible for my stubbornness.

While I eventually finished all four Sundays of the month-long exam, there was yet another scare that would have jeopardized the hopes of the more than 5,000 of us examinees. The Supreme Court belatedly found out that there had been a leakage of the questions in Mercantile Law (Commercial Law). The culprit was allegedly an alumnus from FEU who had access to the bar examiner’s computer where the questions were encoded and stored. The Court initially ordered a retake but later on decided to nullify the subject. Our grades were thus computed based on the remaining seven subjects but the corresponding weight of the nullified subject was proportionately distributed in each of the aforesaid subjects. Ironically, what happened was a blessing in disguise. I would not have made it had the Supreme Court ordered a retake of the Mercantile Law exam. I was already too tired to go through another set of mind-boggling questions, not to mention the additional expense of staying for another week in the crowded and polluted City of Manila.

I came home with a heavy heart. I conditioned myself to brace for the worst though a part of me was still hoping for the best, albeit silently. Luckily, my family did not expect too much from my performance knowing fully well what happened before and during the conduct of the tests. The only consolation was that the swelling on the left side of my face had completely subsided by the time I got back to the Queen City of the South.

Then on that providential day of April 3, 2004, I recieved, to my surprise, the official news that I was among the 1,108 out of the 5,349 hopefuls who successfully passed the controversial bar exams which carried a national passing rate of only 20.71 percent. And finally, on May 3, 2004, I took the lawyer’s oath, the full text of which reads:

I do solemnly swear that I will maintain allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines; I will support its Constitution and obey the laws as well as the legal orders of the duly constituted authorities therein; I will do no falsehood, nor consent to its commission; I will not wittingly or willingly promote or sue any groundless, false or unlawful suit nor give aid nor consent to the same; I will delay no man for money or malice, and will conduct myself as a lawyer according to the best of my knowledge and discretion with all good fidelity as well to the courts as to my clients; and I impose upon myself this voluntary obligation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. SO HELP ME GOD.

I thank God for the privilege of becoming the 48,968th lawyer in the country. With fingers crossed, hope I live up to the standards required of me.