Wednesday, April 04, 2007 2 Cebu grads top bar exams
TWO law graduates from Cebu who took the bar exams last September made it to the top 10.
Karen H. Gaviola, a cum laude graduate from the University of San Carlos (USC), placed seventh with a grade of 85.68 percent. Al-shawid L. Ismael of the University of Cebu ranked eighth, with a rating of 85.65 percent.
Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez said only 30.6 percent of last year’s bar takers passed the examination, or 1,893 out of 6,345 applicants.
Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez chaired the committee on the 2006 bar exams, which were held last Sept. 3, 10, 17 and 24 at the De La Salle University in Manila.
Gaviola, who also finished summa cum laude in her accountancy course at USC, worked for the Commission on Audit in Cebu for a year before pursuing a law degree.
While she was taking up law, she was also teaching at the USC College of Commerce. Gaviola, 28 and the eldest of five siblings, hails from Butuan City and moved to Cebu in 1996 to enroll at USC.
“I will continue to work in Cebu and teach part-time,” Gaviola told Sun.Star Cebu last night.
Ismael, meanwhile, belongs to the first batch of 30 law graduates of the University of Cebu (UC) who took the bar. He was a full scholar at the UC College of Law, which opened in 2002. He also finished magna cum laude in UC and cum laude in accountancy from USC.
Ismael, who is working in Manila at the law office of the late senator Raul Roco, will get a new car from UC president Augusto Go, said College of Law dean Adelino Sitoy.
Sitoy told Sun.Star Cebu that the car was Go’s promise to encourage the students to place in the top 10 of the bar exams.
“It’s the first time for UC to join the bar and it got a topnotcher. But this will be my first and last deanship as I will be retiring to pursue elective office,” Sitoy said.
Another successful bar examinee, Raymond Garcia, is also running for public office.
Garcia, son of former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia, said his passing of the bar exams will boost his candidacy as vice mayor.
“It matches my running for vice mayor. As presiding officer of the council, it is an advantage to know the law. I feel very happy,” Garcia, 30, said in an interview.
Garcia is also the manager of Sun.Star Cebu’s human resources department. His second cousin, Ma. Esperanza Christina Codilla, eldest daughter of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, and Erwin Nuñez of Sun.Star Management also passed the bar.
A law graduate of the University of the Cordilleras (UC), formerly Baguio Colleges Foundation, is this year’s bar examinations topnotcher, besting 6,345 applicants from different law schools.
Noel Neil Malimban obtained the highest rating of 87.60 percent. This is the second time that a graduate in the Northern Luzon law school garnered the highest ratings, following the achievement of Janet Abuel in 1998. (CPG/(With Sunnex)
