Mindanaotoday.com | IBP tells new lawyers: ‘Be true to your calling’
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – “Amidst all fear, confusion, and worst of all, injustice, may you stay true to your calling as a lawyer,” the topmost leader of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) had this wishful advice to the 3,992 examinees who passed the bar, as announced by the Supreme Court of the Philippines Friday last week.
In a message posted online, IBP National President Burt Estrada, who also chairs the 25th IBP board of governors, said the lawyers’ calling is “to give everyone their due, to allow everyone their day in court, and to empower those who have less in life.”
These, he said, have always been the defining characteristics of justice and the spirit of laws which contribute in the preservation and in regaining people’s trust in the country’s legal system.
And lawyers have the power to make positive impacts on the lives of their clients as well as to the society.
“You will soon realize that reality is far from ideal,” said the Malaybalay-based lawyer, who finished law from Jesuit-ran Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan. “Don’t be discouraged nor be disillusioned, instead let this be the greatest challenge for all of you.”
Estrada said lawyers are called to serve and this must be “with honor, passion and of utmost excellence – always striving to live in and by the law.”
On Thursday last week, a day before the 2022 bar examination results were released, the Supreme Court unveiled a new Lawyer’s Oath, aligned with the adoption of a Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA).
Incidentally, Estrada’s exhortative lines are captured in the new Lawyer’s Oath, particularly on its 4th paragraph: “I shall conscientiously and courageously work for justice as well as safeguard the rights and meaningful freedoms of all persons, identities, and communities. I shall ensure greater and equitable access to justice.”
The Lawyer’s Oath also calls for truthfulness in its 5th paragraph: “I shall do no falsehood nor shall I prevent the law to unjustly favor or prejudice anyone.”
In Northern Mindanao, 171 alumni of five universities would soon practice law: 68 from Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan; 36 from Liceo de Cagayan University; 29 from Mindanao State University-Iligan Satellite Campus; 16 from Bukidnon State University, Malaybalay; and 12 from Misamis University, Ozamiz City.
As in the past, the Supreme Court appointed the members of the Committee of Bar Examiners which, for this year, is chaired by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa. Eight members of the Committee are from the IBP.
This year’s successful examinees represent 43.47% of the 9,183 who took the examinations for four days in November last year – the third highest passing rate in two decades, records from the Supreme Court show.
Last year’s 77.28% was highest, followed by 59.06% in 2016. The lowest passing rate was 17.76% in 2012.
Passing average of bar examinees was fixed by law at 75%, with no grade below 50% in any of the eight bar subjects: Civil Law, Labor Law and Social Legislations, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Political and International Law, Taxation, Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics. (MT)
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