sa UST na..
2011 Bar exams moved to November in UST
By Edu Punay (The Philippine Star) Updated January 20, 2011 12:00 AM Comments (0)
MANILA, Philippines - The Bar examinations this year has been moved to November and will be held for the first time in the 400-year-old University of Sto. Tomas in Manila, the Supreme Court announced yesterday.
This year’s Bar exams also mark the first time candidates would have to hurdle three parts of multiple-choice type of test, according to court administrator and spokesman Midas Marquez. He said that for the Bar exams in November this year — the 110th in the country’s history, “the first three Sundays will be for multiple-choice questions, the fourth Sunday will be for essays.” The Bar exams have been in essay type since it started in 1900.
Marquez said the 2011 Bar exams committee chaired by Associate Justice Roberto Abad opted to move the schedule of the exams to the four Sundays of November because of the heavy rains that usually come in the month of September, when the tests have been held in the past years.
In a press conference, the SC official cited the experience in September 2009 where the last Sunday of the Bar exams was postponed due to the massive flooding brought about by typhoon Ondoy. Marquez said the venue was transferred to UST campus after De La Salle University, where the Bar exams have been held since 2002, ended its contract due to planned construction in their campus this year.
The new venue was chosen for “its location, accessibility and availability of testing rooms,” he revealed.
Marquez said the committee was initially looking at the SMX convention in the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, but it was not available for all four Sundays of November. He said that the decision to move the schedule and venue of the Bar exams this year was not a result of the grenade explosion that marred the conclusion of last year’s Bar exams in Manila last Sept. 26. He said it was already planned even before the Bar blast incident. But the SC official said that necessary security measures would be put in place to prevent incidents similar to the grenade bombing.
Marquez said further changes in the format of the exams would be announced by the High Court later this year.
A special investigation committee of the High Court that probed the 2010 Bar blast incident had earlier recommended several changes in security protocol of the exams. Among its proposals is to move the “salubong,” or the traditional practice where examinees are greeted as they leave the exams venue after completing the exams, away from the venue.
Traditionaly this “salubong” is being held right in front of venues of Bar exams. In the exams last month, fraternities, sororities, organizations and friends and relatives of examinees held the event on Taft Avenue fronting the gates of De La Salle University in Manila.
The probe panel also urged the Court to create new security measures in future Bar exams held during the four Sundays of September every year “by putting up a 200-meter perimeter fence within the vicinity of the exams from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
