Ateneo tops bar exams; where’s UP?

That one moment at home watching television Wednesday afternoon was unlike any other for 27-year-old Raoul Angelo Atadero. He heard his name read out as this year’s top bar passer.

“It gave me goose bumps. I wasn’t exactly expecting to top the bar,” said Atadero, valedictorian of Ateneo Law Class of 2011. “I really didn’t think I would do that well.”

He said he even expected to fail in commercial and mercantile law.  “When I heard my name, I was in shock,” said Atadero, who learned about the results while at home in Quezon City. “My Mom was beside me and she was the one crying.”

Atadero got a grade of 85.536 percent followed by Luz Danielle Bolong, also of Ateneo, with 84.556 percent.

Others in the Top 10 were Cherry Liez Rafal-Roble of Arellano University, 84.455; Rosemil Bañaga of Notre Dame University (NDU) in Cotabato City, 84.122; Christian Louie Gonzales of the University of Santo Tomas, 84.094 percent; Ivan Bandal of Silliman University, 84.091 percent; Eireene Xina Acosta of San Beda College, 84.066; Irene Marie Qua, also of Ateneo, 84.057 percent, Elaine Marie Laceda, of the Far Eastern University-De La Salle University Juris Doctor-MBA program, 84.040; and Rodolfo Aquino, also of San Beda, 83.728.

They were among the 1,913 (31.95 percent of the 5,990 examinees) who passed the 2011 bar exams. It was the second highest passing rate in 12 years.

The list of successful examiners may be viewed at the Supreme Court’s website (www.sc.judiciary.gov.ph).

First time

Impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona addressed a crowd of about 200 examiners and their friends gathered on the Supreme Court grounds to view the list of passers on three monitors. It was the first time the head of the judiciary led the announcement ceremony; usually it is just the chairman of the bar committee who does so.

“Maybe you want to volunteer, to be additional members of the defense panel,” Corona jestingly told the crowd, which erupted in cheers. The Supreme Court grounds were bedecked by streamers supporting Corona and the independence of the judiciary.

He later mingled with the crowd for a few minutes and shook hands with some of them.

“To the successful and those who were lucky to pass, my heartfelt congratulations. To those who failed, there’s always a next time. Don’t lose hope,” Corona said.

Hard work, prayer, luck

In a phone patch interview, Atadero said he waited for the results of the exams to come out via the Internet.

He said the television was on and he was surprised when he heard his name mentioned by the bar committee chairman, Justice Roberto Abad.

Asked what his “secret” was in topping the bar, he replied: “Hard work, prayer and luck. Most important is hard work. You really need to work hard because no amount of prayer or luck will make you pass the bar.”

Like most other bar exam takers, Atadero had spent much of last year preparing for the grueling November tests conducted at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

He was glued to law books for up to 14 hours daily between April and November last year.

“I started studying mid-April all the way up to November. I get up at 7 a.m., start studying at 8 a.m. and continue until 9 p.m., including breaks for meals. It’s really pretty standard for bar takers,” Atadero said.

Brilliance with integrity

In his valedictory speech, he underscored the importance of integrity among lawyers, a trait that separates the real gems from the fancy puwit ng baso (literally, the bottom of a drinking glass).

“[T]wo lawyers can be equally bright, skilled and virtually indistinguishable. Like true gems, therefore, it is not our brilliance alone that will set us apart but that indestructible core that we’re made of—what the Ateneo has impressed upon us down to our very molecules—brilliance with integrity,” he told his fellow graduates last year.

“Brilliance without integrity makes us puwit ng baso, breakable and fleeting. Integrity allows us to withstand and constantly scatter light, enduring with brilliance,” he said.

Family’s first lawyer

The second among four siblings, Atadero is the first lawyer in the family. The family, which hails from Meycauayan, Bulacan province, runs a jewelry and pawnshop business.

His interest in law started while he was doing legislative work for the Ateneo Student Council in college.

Atadero, who started working at Puno & Puno Law Offices (PPLO) on February 20, said he was inclined to specialize in corporate law.

Atadero’s superiors at the firm’s corporate department described him as quiet and unassuming, but very intelligent and insightful.

Bolong, the second placer, also belongs to the PPLO. She has been assisting the PPLO in an important family mediation case since joining the firm in mid-February. This consistent dean’s lister at law school has been described as spirited, expressive and possessing a keen eye for details.

Bolong, 24, a native of San Fernando City, La Union, and currently living in Manila, said she prayed for success in the exams at the shrines of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baclaran, Parañaque City, Padre Pio Church in Libis, Quezon City and Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan province.

Sister passed, too

Bolong and her sister Maria Diane, an Arellano graduate, both took the bar last year. She also passed the examination.

Asked how she felt after learning that she passed, the topnotcher replied, “Happy. When I first heard that I passed, my sister and I were attending Mass in Baclaran. My sister told me to turn off the phone so when the Mass ended and I turned on the phone, I was flooded with messages saying that I passed the bar and placed second.”

“We were both in shock. I could not explain [how I felt]. I wasn’t expecting [to be second-placer]. I mean, you work hard so that you will pass the bar, but it’s an extra blessing to learn that you place second. Maybe we will celebrate with my family.”

Difficult

Bolong said she found the exams difficult. “The multiple choice part is objective, so that part was easy. The essay-making portion, I was kind of worried because the examiners might not appreciate my answers.”

She said she found the political and commercial law subjects difficult. Her  favorite subjects were remedial and criminal law.

Mother of 3

Bañaga, 42, knew in her heart that she would become a lawyer, but the mother of three did not expect she would make it to the Top 10.

Bañaga was busy working as an accountant at Alandea Lending Corp. in Cotabato City when the dean of the Notre Dame University College of Law phoned her that she landed in the Top 4.

“I was overwhelmed. My colleagues said I was about to break out in tears,”  Bañaga told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“It’s a blessing from God. I have this feeling that I really had a calling  to become a lawyer to help those in need. And God is making a way to make  it happen,” she said.

“I have this joy that I can’t explain. I have no plans of going anywhere. I will stay in Cotabato, with the company that helped me from the start,” she  said.

She said that from Day 1 of her law school, she concentrated on reading law books and studying topics ahead of her classes.

Novena

Bañaga said that during the bar exams, her husband, Macario, an engineer, would recite the novena.

“He was in church near the exam’s venue reciting the novena, every time I went to the bar exam,” Bañaga said.

Her boss, Delia Sumail, a Christian married to a Muslim and owner of the lending firm, also prayed the novena while she was taking the exams.

“That helped a lot and that complemented my efforts in my studies,” said Bañaga, also a certified public accountant who passed the CPA board exams in 1993.

She also earned her master’s degree in business administration at Notre Dame University in 2004.

First time for Notre Dame

Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud, president of the Notre Dame University, where Bañaga graduated last year, said it was the first time a graduate of NDU College of Law was included in the Top 5.

“Her making it to fourth place is another feather in the cap for NDU. We are very proud of her,” Tanudtanud said.  With reports from Edwin O. Fernandez and Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao