Tight security, rains mar 1st day of bar exams

Tight security and intermittent rains on Sunday welcomed some 6,200 law graduates who took this year’s bar examinations instead of the traditional lively festivities and loud music.

Barred from holding rowdy activities in front of the bar exam venue, fraternities, sororities, school organizations and other supporters of bar examinees set up their “bar operations” a few meters away from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) campus on España Boulevard in Manila.

It is the first time for UST to host the bar exams.

The Manila Police District (MPD), which deployed around 60 personnel around the university, reported “no untoward incidents” in the area on

Sunday.

As expected, traffic around the 400-year-old pontifical university nearly ground to a halt as the bar examinees and their well-wishers started arriving at the venue as early as 5 a.m.

MPD officer in charge Senior Superintendent Alejandro Gutierrez said traffic was kept under control because the examinees came early and roads around the university were wide enough to accommodate the vehicles of examinees.

No road closures or traffic rerouting was necessary, Sampaloc police station commander Supt. Rolando Balasabas said.

He added that supporters of bar examinees complied with a Supreme Court order banning “bar operations” or the traditional supportive reveling outside the exam venue.

“We don’t prevent the supporters from going there; we just prohibit loitering groups, loud noises, putting up tents and hanging of banners and streamers,” Balasabas said.

Since the Supreme Court had prohibited placing streamers in front of UST, some groups put up their welcome banners in commercial establishments near the university.

Some supporters were seen hugging and kissing their loved ones while others were heard giving last-minute reminders to the examinees as they entered the exam venue.

Others were seen praying over the law graduates as they distributed snacks and beverages.

Lawyer Dexter Calizar, a member of the Pi Sigma fraternity, said their group decided to rent a beauty salon on Lacson Street that served as the “bar site” for about 40 of their members who took the bar exams.

“Personally, I think this year’s bar exams are better than the previous ones in terms of the security of the barristers. I can say that it’s also more orderly,” Calizar said, noting that policemen were regularly conducting patrol within the vicinity of UST.

A graduate of the Philippine Law School, Calizar placed ninth in the 2005 bar exams and now works for the Commission on Human Rights.

“While we really miss the usual loud crowds during the bar operations, the security of the supporters and the barristers is far more important,” he said.

But for some examinees, the presence of their relatives and friends cheering them on outside the exam venue was still an “irreplaceable experience.”

Terry Ridon, a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law, said although it was his first time to take the exams, he had witnessed the excitement that the cheering crowd brings to the examinees when he was still a law student.

“Just hearing your fraternity brods and family members shouting words of encouragement can really lift the spirits of the bar takers,” Ridon told the Inquirer.

Ridon, chair of the militant League of Filipino Students, said Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and the Supreme Court might consider allowing supporters to briefly hold the traditional programs near UST “without sacrificing the security in the area.”

The high tribunal implemented stricter security measures during this year’s bar exams to prevent a repeat of last year’s bomb attack outside the exam venue at the De La Salle University, which left close to 50 persons injured.

This was the first time that the bar exams were held in November, or two months later than the traditional exams on September.

Aside from the essay-type tests, it was also the first time that examinees answered multiple choice questions.

During Sunday’s morning session, the examinees answered questions on Political and International Law, and Labor and Social Legislation. They took the exam on Taxation in the afternoon.

Next Sunday, they will have their exams on Civil Law and Mercantile Law and on November 20, Remedial Law, Legal Ethics and Forms, and Criminal Law.

On the final day of the tests, they will take their exams on Trial Memorandum and Legal Opinion.

Gutierrez said the same security measures would be observed next Sunday and the following Sundays of the month as the bar exams continue, but they would step up operations on the last Sunday of the exams, when the “bar ops” would be in full swing.