Becoming a lawyer

IN SEPTEMBER of 1967, I took the bar examinations, which is being conducted by the Supreme Court of the Philippines every year for law graduates. After 1967, bar exams were held in November of every year.

The venue of the yearly bar examinations is Manila, unlike the other government examinations administered by the Civil Service Commission where the exams are held in major cities of the country.

Why held in different venues? Since the law provides so, for practical purposes, like convenience of the graduates since many of them are working students and come from the mass base.

Taking the bar examinations is not only expensive for one has to attend a review for four months and a pre week review too. Of course, those who are very well prepared for the bar exams do not take up the review classes anymore. But a few take up the pre-week review before any of the four Sunday exams take place.

The bar exams during my time were uneventful never festive. The examinees mostly are eager for the exams to be over. At present, the bar exams become an exhibition of intense rivalry of fraternities from big universities in Metro Manila and the colleges of law of major universities in big cities like Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo and Baguio.

Last year for example, the last Sunday of the bar exams was bloody since several persons were injured when a bomb exploded, which allegedly was the handiwork of a frat man from Cebu City, who was not even a law student.

This year’s bar exam was peaceful and orderly since the Supreme Court already prohibited any form of useless pageantry, the law profession being noble and an advocate of justice and supremacy of the law.

I am fortunate that God allowed me to pass the 1967 bar exams, it being one of the most difficult bar exams ever held. Only 16 percent of the examinees made it.

If not for the sincere prayers of my mother, I would have surely flunked the bar. I got 57 percent in taxation, which is eight points from disqualification that’s why of the four lawyers in our family, I got the lowest, which is below 80. My grade was only 79.

After I signed the roll of attorneys in May of 1968, I practiced law for 36 years, joining the Adaza, Adaza, Adaza and Adaza law offices.