The bar exams at a critical time

By Atty. Eduardo T. Reyes III

This Sunday, bar examinees will troop to the designated testing sites to tackle the 2025 bar examinations slated on September 7, 10 and 14.

Based on Bar Bulletin No. 3, June 20, 2025, posted by the Office of the 2025 Bar Chairperson of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, 9 testing centers were approved in Luzon, 3 in the Visayas and 2 in Mindanao.

In this critical time of eroding faith by the people on its government over ghost and substandard projects and people’s money being siphoned to bankroll the lavish lifestyles of those supposedly responsible to build these projects, the integrity and efficiency of the justice system will count a lot.

While meant to be “entry-level” legal puzzles, the bar exams are a tough nut to crack given the sheer volume of laws to be mastered, jurisprudence to be analyzed, and their proper application to hypothetical situations being under time-pressure.

The major subjects are Political and International Law, Labor Law, Civil Law, Taxation, Commercial Law, Remedial Law and Legal Ethics.

The subjects are meant to be holistic even as the law is meant to address all aspects of society.

While historically, lawyers were not well-regarded, nonetheless, it is undeniable that more lawyers are needed to navigate or traverse the maze of laws and jurisprudence that have accumulated over time.

Three years ago, when the bar exams were rolled out during the time of pandemic, the challenges were doubly-hard. The examinees were fazed by a life-threatening virus that gripped them while preparing for and taking the exams.

Today, the bar examinees are beset not only by rain, flood and typhoons, but also by a hurricane of scandals and controversies involving major infrastructure projects.

Yet they will brave all these hazards and stumbling blocks on Sunday.

In 2022, the thoughts that percolated and captured while on flight in this column through the article titled “The Rain on Bar Exam Day” published on February 5, 2022, may still resonate today.

An excerpt is here quoted for easy reference:

“Patience. This is one virtue which is essential to every lawyer. The law is not perfect. But it meets perfection when a patient and conscientious interpretation is congealed by the lawyer handling the case. True, it is the magistrates who hand down decisions that make jurisprudence; but it is the lawyer that starts from scratch. He/she gathers the dust and molds it into a legal theory. In turn, the legal theory becomes case law when the Supreme Court gives it a nod.

Raindrop by raindrop. One case at a time. Lawyers are key in creating the social construct. The exams are not without meaning. Indeed, this is the society we live in. We need the synergy in terms of our relationship with the State even as we need harmony among fellow members in society.

Yet the legal profession can be glamorous. Most lawyers are called ‘rainmakers.’ I agree. But not in terms of avarice or gain. I would rather that we dance with the law in tune with its music and not its noise. We touch people’s lives like gentle raindrops in the summer of their lives. The pandemic no doubt had made many people’s lives a seemingly endless summer that awaits the rain. 

I reached my place at around 5:25 AM. It was not raining anymore.

Or maybe I spoke too soon. 

I think it is still raining. And the rain will not stop because the rainmakers are on their way. 

Let us flood society with more lawyers. Good ones who will significantly improve the relationship of the State to its citizens as well as among the citizens themselves.

Yes, we need more lawyers. May the heavens bring them with the rain. Let us be drenched with the good ones.

Let it rain some more.”

(The author is the senior partner of ET Reyes III & Associates (ETRIIILaw)– a law firm based in Iloilo City. He is a litigation attorney, a law professor, MCLE lecturer, bar reviewer and a book author. Among the books he authored is Law on Property and Essentials of Land Registration [2024 Edition] which was on the bestseller’s list in online shops for several months. His website is etriiilaw.com).