ASPIRING lawyers who took the Bar examinations last November will probably have butterflies in their stomach as they await the results of the 2016 Bar Exams which will be announced by the Supreme Court (SC) today.
SC spokesperson Theodore Te said a special en banc session will precede the announcement to discuss the passing rate.
A total of 6,831 law graduates took the Bar examinations held last November at the University of Sto. Tomas.
Two graduates of the University of San Carlos in Cebu City finished in the top 10 of the 2015 Bar exams which was released last year.
Athena Plaza landed second with a rating of 87.25 percent, just a few points behind the highest score of 87.40 percent garnered by Rachel Angeli Miranda of the University of the Philippines.
Another USC graduate, Jecca Jacildo, ranked eighth with 85.85 percent.
Plaza and Jacildo were among the 1,730 examinees who passed the Bar exams, considered the toughest licensure examination in the country.
Of 6,600 aspiring lawyers who completed the 2015 Bar exams, 1,730 passed or a passing percentage of 26.21 — the sixth highest since 2001.
The Bar exam, which is given for four Sundays, covers political law and labor law for the first Sunday; Civil Law and Taxation for the second Sunday; mercantile law and criminal law for the third Sunday; and remedial law and legal ethics and practical exercises for the last Sunday.
The Bar exams, the only professional licensure examination the Professional Regulation Commission does not oversee, was chaired by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr.