Congratulations 2023 Bar Exams passers

By Alex P. Vidal

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” – Beverly Sills

WE congratulate all the passers in the 2023 Philippine bar examinations held on September 17 (Sunday), 20 (Wednesday), and 24 (Sunday).

Instead of announcing it next year, the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) will release the official results, including the list of passers and top examinees to over 10,000 aspiring lawyers, in the afternoon of Tuesday, December 5, 2023, according to the official notice from SC issued in November 16.

Headed by Bar chairperson and Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando, the simultaneous digital bar exams were administered at 14 local testing centers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

SC conducted the exams through Examplify, a secure examination delivery program in which examinees will use their devices in their preferred venue, monitored by in-person proctors and closed-circuit television cameras in exam rooms.

Before officially posting results, the PRC Board said SC is conducting a special en banc session to decode the bar exam results.

This is the process of opening the sealed envelopes with the names of passers.

The list of passers will also be posted on the SC’s official website and flashed via widescreen at the Supreme Court’s front yard.

The professional licensure examination for lawyers in the country, the Philippine Bar Examination is arguably the most difficult licensure exam in the Philippines and is exclusively administered by the SC of the Philippines through the Supreme Court Bar Examination Committee.

The Philippine Bar Examination has been thought to be one of the hardest in the world because of the number of subjects covered (eight). In order to pass, PRC Board said takers need to obtain a general average of 75 percent in all law subjects and must not fall (and fail) below 50 percent in any of the subjects.

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We wish Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” P. Treñas well and may he have a speedy recovery after he reportedly underwent a “successful” angioplasty December 2 following a routine medical check-up.

Angioplasty, also called balloon angioplasty, is a procedure that opens arteries to let blood go through more easily.

Healthcare providers use this minimally invasive procedure in tight spots in arteries where plaque makes the space inside an artery too narrow or blocks it.

It is a procedure to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels that supply blood to the heart, according to health experts. These blood vessels are called the coronary arteries.

A coronary artery stent is a small, metal mesh tube that expands inside a coronary artery, according to health experts.

Treñas’ doctor reportedly found a blocked artery in his heart, thus necessitating the procedure that took only 30 minutes.

“Let us all include him and his family in our prayers,” appealed the official statement from the Iloilo City Mayor’s Office.

If the city mayor had a planned (non-emergency) coronary angioplasty, he should be able to return to work after a week.

However, if Treñas had an emergency angioplasty following a heart attack, it may be several weeks or months before he recovers fully and is able to return to work.

Thank God he didn’t have a heart attack. Get well soon, Mayor Treñas.

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ILLNESSES. Homosexuality remained on the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental illnesses until 1973. In other words, if you were a gay before that year, you were considered as psychotic or a mental patient. We can just imagine the tribulation and distress members of gay community went through until 1973.

XANTHOPHOBIA is fear of the color yellow.

VASECTOMY. The first “official” vasectomy was performed in 1893.

BEDROOM. People who have a television in their bedroom have 50 percent less sex than those who don’t. (Source: Baby and Families)

BERTRAND RUSSELL said: “Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.”

OLDEST SEX TOY. The oldest dildo in the world is approximately 28,000 years old. It was discovered in 2005 in Tubingen, Germany by archaeological researchers at the university there. It is eight inches long and “hard as a rock.” The team also posited that the stone phallus could have been used as a striking stone (but that’s not as interesting as the other believed use, is it!)

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)