City gov’t endorses proposed first public law school in WV

By: Emme Rose Santiagudo

WESTERN Visayas State University (WVSU) received support from the Iloilo City government in its plan to open the first public law school in the region.

The Sangguniang Panlungsod on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing the proposal of WVSU to open a College of Law and offer the Juris Doctor Degree Program in its main campus in La Paz district in Iloilo City.

At present, the university has a pending application with the Legal Education Board for the opening of its own College of Law.

According to Councilor Rudolph Jeffrey Ganzon, proponent of the resolution, all the five law schools in the region are in private universities.

“In the region, there are five law schools in all private universities that cater to those who aspire to be a member of the legal profession, namely University of San Agustin (USA), Central Philippine University (CPU), Colegio dela Purisima Concepcion, Aklan Catholic College and University of St. La Salle,” he said.

In Panay, only two universities (USA and CPU) offer the Bachelor of Law/Juris Doctor in Panay, he added.

Ganzon said that almost 40 percent of students enrolled in the law schools of Iloilo City are graduates of WVSU.

In fact, two of the AB Political Science graduates of the university were bar topnotchers, one ranked 1st in the 2014 Bar Examination and another ranked 4th in 2016, according to Ganzon.

“WVSU will be the only public institution of higher learning to offer the law degree in Western Visayas. WVSU attracts and accommodates financially challenged but academically able students as it brings to the College of Law the same quality, standards, and excellence afforded to students in the WVSU system,” he said.

He emphasized that WVSU will maintain competent, reliable, and experienced law professors, judges, and lawyers with unquenchable and unquestionable passion to teach in the College of Law.

“The city of Iloilo supports the efforts of WVSU to give the less privileged who aspire to be a member of the legal profession the opportunity to have an inexpensive, premier, and quality legal education,” Ganzon said.

Meanwhile, copies of the resolution will be forwarded to the Legal Education Board and Commission of Higher Education in Region 6.