MANILA, Philippines -- Retired Supreme Court justice Florenz Regalado obtained in 1954 the highest score so far of 96.7 percent in the history of bar examinations in the Philippines, but it was former senator Tecla San Andres-Ziga who became the first woman to top the bar, scoring 89.4 percent in 1930.

Pre-war results of bar topnotchers placed Manuel Roxas as having made history in 1913 by getting an average of 92 percent. A year later, Manuel Goyena beat the record at 93 percent.

The feat of San Andres-Ziga, senator from 1963-1969, was unsurpassed until Cecilia Munoz-Palma, who later became an SC magistrate, obtained 92.6 percent in 1937.

In 1936, Diosdado Macapagal, who became the 9th president of the Philippines, topped the bar exams with a mark of 89.85 percent.

In 1939, Ferdinand Marcos got the highest score of 92.35 percent. He reviewed for the bar exams while facing indictments for the murder of his father’s political enemy. In 1965, Marcos joined the presidential race and defeated the reelectionist father of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In 1944, former Senate President Jovito R. Salonga and former senator Jose W. Diokno both obtained the highest score of 95.3 percent.

Last year, University of the Cordilleras law graduate Noel Neil Q. Malimban topped the examinations with a score of 87.60 percent.