The results of the 2014 Bar examinations will be released on Thursday, March 26, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court will hold its special en banc session on Thursday to deliberate and approve on the passing rate.
“As soon as the en banc gives its approval, the grades will be decoded and the names of the successful Bar passers will be released,” SC spokesperson Theodore Te told reporters.
Te disclosed that the list of the Bar passers will be posted outside the gates of the SC compound in Padre Faura, Manila as well as on two large screens within the SC’s quadrangle.
He added that the results will also be uploaded on the SC’s website at sc.judiciary.gov.ph.
A total of 6, 344 law graduates from all over the country were allowed to take the grueling test last October but only 5, 987 were left to endure the last day of the exam.
One of the graduates who completed the exam is 88-year old Bienvenido Hilario from Bulacan who is trying his luck for the third time after failing in the 2008 and 2012 Bar examinations.
Hilario graduated from the Philippine Law School.
The 2014 Bar examinations also featured the use of bar codes on the booklets of examinees with corresponding stickers bearing their names placed on their assigned seats, thereby, replacing the use of name cards for examinees in all previous Bar exams.
The 2014 SC Bar Exams Committee headed by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta said this was to modernize the conduct of the annual exam, dubbed as the most difficult of all licensure exams in the country.
Besides, the high court also required all examinees to use transparent or see-through bags for purposes of convenience and security.
The Bar exams covered Political Law and Public International Law, Labor Law and Social Legislation, Civil Law, Taxation, Mercantile Law and Criminal Law, and Remedial Law and Legal Ethics.
Last year’s exams also saw more exam re-takers than first-timers with a total of 3, 229 (50.9 percent) compared to the 3, 115 first takers.
Earlier, the SC removed the cap on exam retakes as it lifted the five-strike rule. In the 2013 Bar examinations, only 1, 174 out of the 5, 593 examinees managed to passed the exams.