DESPITE THE TOUGHER TESTS DUE to a longer set of questions per subject, those who topped the 2009 bar exams delivered as they were expected to by their families and schools.

As valedictorian of Class 2009, Reinier Paul Yebra was no doubt San Beda College?s best bet to give the school its seventh bar topnotcher.

The eldest son of retired police director Efren Yebra and college dean Irene Yebra became SBC?s first bar topnotcher in 42 years since fellow alumnus Rodolfo Robles topped the 1967 exams, according to the San Beda College of Law website.

Yebra, with an average rating of 84.80 percent, ranked first among the 1,451 examinees who passed the 2009 bar exams out of the 5,903 who took them in September and October last year.

Like other topnotchers, Yebra said he did not expect the ?bonus? of topping the bar.

?Even when I was a child I never saw myself as not being a lawyer,? he said in a phone interview Saturday after hardly any sleep the night before.

There is only one lawyer in the family, he said, who happens to be a cousin.

Catalyst

He said he was able to get through law school by balancing academics with social activities with fraternity brothers from Lex Leonum Fraternitas.

?When I started during the first year, they were the ones teaching me. When I was not studying, we were having fun. So this was the catalyst, the balance. They were very supportive,? he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Yebra said he was ?overwhelmed? by the bar exams which he said became longer since each of the eight subjects had two examiners.

So instead of one examiner giving 20 questions, they had two examiners giving 20 questions each per subject.

He joined the Accra law firm last November after taking a one-month break after the bar.

Tough

Caroline Lagos, 26, added another feather to the cap of perennial bar toplister University of the Philippines by ranking fourth in the bar exams. She said she thought she would fail because the second week of the exams nearly broke her spirit.

?It was so tough. I thought I was going to be DQ?ed (disqualified) so I was praying hard,? she said over the phone.

But she picked herself up and completed the remaining two weeks.

When the news reached her at the Accra office, where she?s also working, on Friday night, Lagos broke down in tears. ?I cried and cried. I couldn?t believe it.?

Like father, like daughter

Her father, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Rafael Lagos topped the bar exams in 1980. Like daughter, the father also graduated from UP.

?He?s my idol,? said Lagos, who said she took up law because she wanted to study ?something very practical.?

?I see Dad all the time trying to help people solve their problems,? she said.

Lagos graduated in 2009 with a dean?s medal because she was ranked 13th in their batch.

Another UP topnotcher Herminio Bagro III, or ?Third? to his family and friends, who ranked eighth, is also a personification of perseverance.

Coming from an admittedly lower-middle class family, with the family income from a sari-sari store and his father?s earnings, Bagro got through law school mainly through scholarships and sponsorship from his fraternity brothers from the Upsilon Sigma Phi chapter in Southern California.

And why did he take up law? ?I thought knowing the law is a very powerful tool to effect changes,? said this 25-year-old who was also elected chair of the UP Diliman Student Council from 2008 to 2009, his senior year in law school.

At the same time, he was also a working student with a part-time job as legal researcher in a government office.

He is the first lawyer in the family.

Having joined Liberal Party vice presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II?s campaign, Bagro said he had his hands full until the elections.

Afterwards, he said, he would decide what to do next. He said he was looking at pursuing further law studies abroad although he would want to practice his profession for a year or two.

But definitely, he said, he would want to pursue a career in ?public policy development.?

Bagro described the bar exams as a ?harrowing experience.?

?I prepared for it like it was the last exam of my life. Because I wanted to take it only once,? Bagro said, explaining that the bar exams was not limited to the examinee but ?involves your family and friends. And I don?t want to impose on them again.?

?Ondoy?

The three topnotchers said they ?feel for their classmates and fellow bar examinees? who were affected by Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? that submerged entire villages during what should have been the final week of the exams in September last year.

Yebra, Lagos and Bagro said their homes were fortunately not affected.

Yebra said he had friends and fellow bar examinees who lived in Provident Village in Marikina stay over in their house after Ondoy.

?I offered to help because they didn?t have a place to stay,? he said.