Supreme Court wants Bar applicants to be included in gov’t vaccination drive

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 3 years ago

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court is coordinating with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to include Bar examinees in its vaccination program against COVID-19.

“We are working with the IATF-EID to include in the country’s vaccination program Bar applicants who do not fall under any of the [priority] categories. We have had positive discussions with the vaccine czar regarding this request,” read Bar Bulletin No. 22 signed by Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the current chair of the 2020/2021 Bar Examination.

The priority groups are A1 or the medical frontliners, A2 are senior citizens, A3 are persons with comorbidities, while A4 is frontline personnel in essential sections.

For now, Leonen encourages the Bar applicants to get vaccinated through their local government units.

“We strongly encourage every Bar applicant who falls under the priority groups to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Leonen.

The upcoming Bar Examination has introduced innovations to ensure the safety of the examinees and court staff.

Filing of application to take the Bar can now be made through an online platform.

While the Bar examination will still be conducted on the four Sundays of November, instead of one venue which was previously the University of Santo Tomas, there will be several venues for the convenience of the examinees. The high court took into consideration the risk and travel restrictions due to the pandemic. Currently, there are already 17 Bar examination venues nationwide.

The high court has also yet to announce if the examinees will be required to show a negative test every Sunday. The recent Bar matter mentioned that the high court is also working on the possible purchase of COVID-19 testing kits for Bar examinees.

“The COVID-19 protocols for the Bar Examinations in November will be announced in early October, when we have an informed view of the possible situation at that time. We have also been preparing for various scenarios and actively monitoring developments from several credible sources,” said Leonen.

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