MANILA, Philippines -- The 2007 bar examination results will be released sometime after lunch Saturday, the Supreme Court has announced.

SC Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez on Friday said the decoding was expected to be finished by lunchtime. He said the list of names will be displayed in LCD projectors in front of the high court.

"It is important to check and double check the names with the numbers of those who took the exam. We want to make sure that no errors will be committed in the decoding process," he said.

Marquez pointed out that every year, the Court receives requests for re-checking, especially from those who failed to pass the examinations.

“But the Court does not normally entertain or allow such requests unless there are strong arguments for re-checking,” he said.

A total of 5,626 law graduates from 109 law schools took the Bar examination for four consecutive Sundays in September last year.

The Rules of Court provides that "a candidate may be deemed to have passed his examination successfully 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 the following 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.

Sources said some of the 2007 bar takers are children of high government officials including that of Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., Court of Appeals Associate Justices Remedios Salazar-Fernando, Lucenito Tagle, Mariflor Castillo, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno.

Last year, the high court began implementing the "five-strike" rule, which disqualifies five-time flunkers from taking future bar exams. With Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer