MANILA, Philippines?Law graduates who took this year?s bar examinations proved to be a hardy and determined lot even in the wake of a flooded metropolis and two consecutive storms.

Supreme Court deputy court administrator Jose Midas Marquez said Monday that only one out of the 5,904 bar examinees failed to show up on Oct. 4 for the last of the series of four test days.

Lost permits

The last day of the exam was originally scheduled for Sept. 27 but record-setting rains brought by Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international codename: Ketsana) prompted the Supreme Court to postpone it for a week.

Marquez said that only five examinees lost their exam permits and asked for duplicate copies.

Some of the examinees, especially those from Marikina City and Cainta were severely affected by the floods on Sept. 26.

San Beda College law graduate Paulette Tapire, 26, of Gruar Subdivision in Cainta, Rizal, found herself trapped inside her home in the early morning of Sept. 26 when Ondoy unleashed a month?s worth of rains in one afternoon.

?I studied until 2 a.m. When I woke up around 7 a.m., I looked outside and saw how deep the flood already was,? Tapire told the Inquirer.

She could no longer leave her house for the Diamond Hotel in Manila where San Beda?s law graduates were billeted on the eve of the examinations, on Sept. 27.

Chest-high

Tapire said the waters rose chest-high on the first floor of her family?s two-story house. Outside, she said, the waters were easily higher than an average person?s height.

?I was in my room praying that the exams would be canceled,? she said.

Far Eastern University law graduate and Marikina resident Chris Linag, on the other hand, said he was already on Katipunan Avenue on his way to G-Hotel in Manila when the car he was riding in stalled in the flood.

?I found myself wading in flood waters just to get to Manila,? Linag said.

It was good news when Tapire and Linag learned later that the Supreme Court had put off the last day of the bar exam for Oct. 4.

?It was only then that I was able to help carry our things to the second floor,? Tapire said.

Linag said that while his family wasn?t directly affected by the flood (their house in Marikina is on higher ground), he was affected ?psychologically.?

?I saw how my friends were affected. For a week I was at an evacuation center to help out,? he said.

Last day of exam

Both Tapire and Linag made it to the final day of the examination despite their respective ordeals and the threat of yet another typhoon.

?It was the last day of the exam. I couldn?t afford not to attend it,? Tapire said.

The Supreme Court earlier announced a simple procedure through which examinees who had lost their permits because of the floods could secure duplicate copies so they could take the final test.

Marquez said 6,080 were admitted to take the exams but only 5,914 took the tests on the first Sunday of the examinations in September. The examinees were down to 5,904 in the second and third Sundays.