Bedan lawyer on topping 2014 bar exam: ‘It’s a miracle’

Irene Mae Alcobilla. FACEBOOK PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Poring over her law books since her graduation, 2014 bar exam topnotcher Irene Mae Alcobilla said that acing the exam was a “miracle.”

The San Beda College of Law alumna said on Thursday that she only hoped to pass the exam but did not expect to be this year’s bar exam top placer.

READ: San Beda College graduate tops 2014 bar exam

“I feel that it’s a miracle. Maybe I’m just dreaming. I can’t define what I am feeling right now, ” Alcobilla said in an interview on ANC.

“What I only wanted was to become a Bedan lawyer, to pass the Bar. But while I was reviewing, I said to myself I needed to set standards for myself,” the 26-year-old San Remigio, Antique, native said.

Describing herself as someone “who is not that good,” Alcobilla said that the exam was difficult and that she chose to review her lessons instead of sleeping during the exam conducted on four Sundays in October 2014.

“The exam was difficult. But I told myself that I was able to answer it and that my answers made sense. So I told myself, ‘I will pass,’” she said.

She said she learned about the result in social media when her friends informed her on Viber and started tagging her on Facebook.

The newly minted lawyer broke the good news to her anxious parents with a short text message: “Top 1.”

LOOK: Full list of the 1,126 passers of 2014 bar exam

On her Facebook account, she offered her lawyer dream to God a day before the results of the exam were released: “I declare that tomorrow my dream will come true in [Jesus’] name. Amen.”

And it did.

“Hindi ko po alam kung paano ako nabigyan ng ganito kalaking gift (I don’t know how I became blessed with such a huge gift),” Alcobilla said.

Alcobilla is one of the three Bedans who placed a spot in the top 10 in this year’s bar exam and one of the 1,126 new lawyers.

She graduated with a degree in Political Science in West Visayas State University and has worked as an intern in the Office of the Solicitor General.

San Beda College last had a bar topnotcher in 2009 with Reiner Paul Yabra. ID/RC

READ: 1,126 pass 2014 bar exam