9 DILG employees pass 2016 bar exam

Bar examinees await the release of passers from the Supreme Court. (INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO / RYAN LEAGOGO)

Nine employees of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) offices nationwide were among the 3,747 who passed the bar examinations as the Supreme Court released the results on Wednesday.

Among the DILG employees who passed the bar examination from the DILG’s central office in Quezon City were Margielyn Asilo, Jeff Kevin Carbonel, Ansis Reyhan, Victor Pornillos, and Marybeth Ricafrente-Palattao.

Bar passers from the regional offices were Darwin Alminaza of DILG-Western Visayas, and Jennifer Molvizar, Karah Jane Tamboong, Rafunzel Bero, Diana Jean Alicer-Avila, who are all from DILG-Eastern Visayas.

DILG officer-in-charge Catalino Cuy expressed elation about the achievement of DILG employees. But he said he was hoping that the new lawyers would continue their careers in public service.

“We are grateful that despite the stress of the examination, they managed to deliver committed and sincere public service,” Cuy said in a statement on Thursday.

He said the DILG is “fortunate to have employees who aspired and triumphed over the bar examination since their legal knowledge and higher qualification would be greatly beneficial to the people they serve.”

In a media release sent by the DILG, Pornillos, who works full time as an employee in the DILG Central Office, said the most challenging part of studying law is juggling all his subjects while working.

“Time management really was the hardest for me. Being a working student poses a lot of challenges; also, I wasn’t able to take review courses, I just self-study,” Pornillos said.

His colleagues Carbonel and Asilo, meanwhile, said that waiting for the bar results was the most difficult part.

“There’s not enough preparation, mental or physical, for the bar exam, but the trickiest part is the uncertainty, waiting if you will pass or not,” Carbonel said.

For her part, Asilo promised to dedicate her learning for public service.

“I really want to stay in DILG, prior to being a lawyer, I really had a heart for working in DILG, for being a public servant, as I was inspired by my father who was a former barangay captain,” Asilo said.

A total of 3,747 out of 6,344 examinees passed the bar exams held at the University of Santo Tomas last November. This year, it had a passing rate of 59.06 percent, higher than the 26.21 percent the previous year.

For the first time, all topnotchers of the 2016 bar exams came from law schools outside Metro Manila. JE/rga