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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Bar leakage extends exams by one Sunday
MANILA---A ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) has nullified the results of last Sunday's tests for would-be lawyers, after confirmation of what could be the most widespread case of cheating in the 104-year-old bar exams.
Speaking before reporters in a press briefing, a bleary-eyed Associate Justice Jose C. Vitug, chairman of this year's examinations, said he recommended a fresh round of tests on mercantile law, one of eight subjects in the exams, after the anomalies were discovered.
In a minute resolution, the SC ordered another examination on mercantile law on Oct. 4, a Saturday.
According to the Supreme Court, the last time a similar "retake" of the bar exams occurred was on Nov. 23, 1979, when the High Court ordered new examinations in labor and social legislation and taxation in the exams chaired by Justice Pacifico de Castro.
Vitug, who chairs the bar exams for the second time in his career in the judiciary, denied the rumors that the leakage came from the offices of two public figures, former palace hand Norberto Gonzales and former justice secretary Hernando B. Perez, who were chosen as bar examiners this year and tapped to provide possible questions.
"They had nothing to do with it," Vitug said.
The four-hour mercantile law test covers the law on insurance, transportation, partnerships, negotiable instruments, credit transactions, banking and corporation law.
Vitug declined to state which groups or schools benefited from the leakage of the bar questionnaire, which he said was extracted from a computer at the examiner's office.
Word for word
The examiner, whom Vitug declined to name, has since "offered to inhibit" himself from further taking part in the new exams and pointed out that the SC ruling on the matter is "without prejudice to any further action the Supreme Court may take on the matter."
Under the normal procedure for bar questions, the invited bar examiner---an expert in a specific field of law---submits up to 20 proposed bar questions on the subject.
Of the examiner's proposed questions, 70-75 percent are then used by the bar committee chairman, who in turn provides around 25 percent of the questions himself.
In last Sunday's leakage, up to 13 questions originally proposed by the examiner made it to the final draft of the questionnaire and appeared word for word in copies of the "leaked documents," which were 50 pages long and surfaced the night before the examinations.
"Seventy-five percent is a big percentage for us to just let go. It was painful for me to make the recommendation knowing the problems faced by candidates in the bar exams.... However, it must be done," Vitug said.
The leaked questions "had been found in the hands of examinees" and were brought to Vitug's attention the night after the exams were given.
Vitug said a three-member panel will conduct a thorough investigation on the controversy.
Conflict
The last time a controversy occurred in the bar was in 1999, when Associate Chairman Fidel Purisima was forced to step down as bar chairman after he belatedly disclosed that he had a nephew who took the bar that year, a conflict-of-interest situation.
Aside from disqualifying the nephew, Mark Anthony Purisima, the High Court also censured the magistrate and ordered half of his P500,000 honoraria as bar chairman forfeited.
The nephew was allowed to take the lawyer's oath last year.
In 1982, another controversy occurred when then Justice Vicente Ericta was reported to have personally approached the bar chairman to inquire whether his (Ericta's) son passed the bar, raising suspicion he exerted pressure on the chairman.
In the 1930s, a distant relative of former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos who was a magistrate in the High Court resigned after a similar controversy involving the bar examinations.
A total of 5,455 law graduates took the four-week exams, which started Sept. 7 at the De la Salle University campus.
It was the highest number of takers since 1963, when 5,453 took the exams.
Aside from mercantile law, which accounts for 15 percent of the entire exam's weight, a candidate must obtain a general average of 75 percent in all subjects without falling below 50 percent in the other subjects: political and international law, labor and social legislation, civil law, taxation, criminal law, remedial law, legal ethics and practical exercises. (Sun.Star Network Exchange)
(September 24, 2003 issue)
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