Bar exams in the Visayas off to peaceful start

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY — This year’s Bar exams in three testing centers in the Visayas have started in an orderly manner.

Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Col. Ireneo Dalogdog said everything went smoothly near and at the University of San Carlos (USC) and the University of Cebu (UC) Banilad Campus.

No one was arrested for violating the drinking of liquor in areas within the 100-meter radius of Bar exam venues.

According to Dalogdog, examinees arrived at the testing centers as early as 4 a.m. accompanied by their respective families and friends.

The Central Visayas police based in Cebu City has deployed around 100 policemen to secure Bar examinees and other persons.

READ: SC: 9,821 applicants to brave through 2022 Bar exams

“We are aiming for a zero major incident in the holding of the Bar exams,” said Brigadier Gen. Roderick Augustus Alba, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas.

Police assistance desks were also put up in each of the two exam venues in Cebu City for the police to immediately assist examinees regarding peace and order concerns.

A total of 1,672 law graduates took their Bar exams in Cebu City – 1,152 in UC Banilad and 520 in USC.

Aside from USC and UC, the Dr. Vicente Orestes Romualdez Educational Foundation (DVOREF) of Tacloban City also hosted this year’s Bar exams.

At least 392 individuals from Eastern Visayas took the Bar exams in the school.

Families and friends waited outside the premises of the testing center to cheer and show their support to the examinees.

Representatives from various law schools in the region also set up tables where they put foods and snacks for the examinees.

The Bar examinations will take place on November 9, 13, 16, and 20.

The Supreme Court, in an earlier advisory, said the 2022 Bar exams will cover remedial law and legal ethics; political and international law; criminal law; labor law and social legislation; and civil law and mercantile law.

This was the second time the Bar would be held outside Metro Manila and also the second time it was being conducted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The exams were called off in 2020 and 2021. With reports from Nestle Semilla, Dale Israel, and Joey Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas