VETERAN radio broadcaster Buen Pogtes Algono could not believe at first that he was among the 3,992 passers of the 2022 Bar examination.
Algono was in Tabor Hills in Barangay San Jose, Cebu City to light a candle when word spread that he had passed the bar exam.
He said his News Director Aida dela Cruz called him on his cell phone to inform him that he passed the exam.
"Wala pa gani nako maugbok akung kandila daghan na kaayo ang nanawag nako, wala kaayo ko motuo sa unang tawag pero sa dihang nitawag na si Aida diha nako nakaingon nga nipasar gyud diay ko,” Algono said.
(I haven't even stuck my candle. I didn't really believe the first call, but when Aida called, I said that I really passed).
He said it was not easy to attend Law school at the University of the Visayas (UV) as he also worked as a broadcaster for DyHP and wrote for Cebu Daily News newspaper in early 2000.
Algono did not immediately take the test after receiving his Law degree in 2007 due to financial difficulties, especially since the Bar exam then was held in Manila.
He failed the exam the first time he took it in the Capital.
On his second try, Algono was not able to take the first regionalized Bar exam in Cebu in February 2022 because he tested positive for Covid-19 the day before the exam.
Algono did not give up, and he persisted in his studies in order to fulfill his ambition of becoming a lawyer.
He believes that God had a purpose for why he was unable to take the Bar at the time.
Algono made as his shed the Mulberry tree at the back of DyHP building where he read Bar review books.
The building's management gave him permission to build a roof around the Mulberry tree, where he frequently stayed till the morning to study, not to mention the many mosquitoes and the discomfort of getting wet when it rains heavily.
But all these sacrifices paid off because he is now a lawyer.
Algono said that his prayer and the encouragement of his coworkers had greatly helped him.
Algono started his career in 1997 as a correspondent of DyRC until 1999.
He transferred to DyLA in the same year,
In 2022, he anchored the Straight to the Point Evening Edition radio program of DyHP until the present.
The 49-year-old Algono hails from Agsungot, a mountain barangay in Cebu City.
He has four children.
His relatives were happy because he is the first lawyer of the Pogtes-Algono clan. (AYB, TPT)