MANILA, Philippines?The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) will close down six law schools across the country because not one of their graduates passed the bar exams in the last 10 years, CHEd chair Emmanuel Angeles said Wednesday.

Angeles said CHEd decided to crack the whip on these law schools because they have been consistent in getting a performance percentile rank of ?zero? in the bar exams administered by the Supreme Court from 1999 to 2009.

?We will be forced to close down the following law schools that will fail to comply with CHEd standards,? Angeles said in an interview.

List of schools

Angeles said that they will start with the law programs of six higher education institutions?Eastern Samar State University; Polytechnic College of La Union; Samar College; Ramon Magsaysay Technological University in Iba, Zambales; Southern Bicol College in Masbate; and Abra Valley College.

He said five other schools?East Central Colleges, Virgen De Los Remedios College in Olongapo City; International Harvardian University in Davao City; Manuel A. Roxas Educational Institution and the Zamboanga A.E. College?voluntarily removed their law programs.

Angeles said CHEd reviewed the bar exam performance of the country?s law schools based on data from the Supreme Court.

?These law schools that have been getting zero percent will be advised to shut down their law programs,? Angeles said.

Top schools

?We have to act now in order to put our education system in the proper standard and improve the competencies of our graduates and professionals so that we can compete in the global arena starting with how we produce our law graduates,? Angeles said.

While cracking down on ?non-performing? law schools, the CHEd chair also released a list of the country?s ?Top 20 law schools in terms of their percentile passing rate.?

These schools were Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College, University of the Philippines, Far Eastern University-DLSU (Juris Doctor-MBA), Ateneo de Davao University, University of San Carlos, University of Santo Tomas, University of Cebu, University of Perpetual Help-Rizal and Arellano University.

Also listed were the Xavier University, Far Eastern University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, University of San Agustin, University of Batangas, Palawan State University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Saint Louis University, Lyceum of the Philippines and the San Sebastian College-Recolectos de Manila.