2 in bar exam top 10 from San Carlos
By Karlon N. Rama
With Allan I. Varquez
CEBU CITY -- Two of the top 10 who passed last year's bar exam come from the University of San Carlos (USC) College of Law. Both are women.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ma. Cristina Larrobis of Minglanilla, Cebu, placed fourth with 86.3 percent, while Ma. Melissa Jamero, 26, of Cebu City, ranked 10th with 85.2 percent.
This is the third time the Cebu-based university produced a top placer-the first one being Omar Redulla in 1981, followed by George Diaz in 1998.
It is also reportedly the first time the school produced more than one bar topnotcher in a batch.
January Sanchez of the University of the Philippines (UP) came out first among the 1,659 who passed the exam given in September last year.
A total of 5,249 took the exam.
Excellence
Sanchez was followed by fellow UP barrister Ronald de Vera and then by Charlito Martin Mendoza of San Beda College.
San Beda had two other entries in the top 10-Efren Vincent Dizon and Maria Melissa Tan, who ranked fifth and seventh, respectively.
Sixth place went to Michael Geronimo Martin, Ateneo de Manila University's only entry to the top 10, while the UP duo of Joseph Jomar Perez and Neil Simon Silva finished eighth and ninth.
"We are living up to the tradition of excellence which has been established through the years. This is the product of hard work from both students and faculty," said Dean Cora-zon Evangelista-Valencia of the USC College of Law in an interview Friday night.
"These very same people topped the mock bar and their class examinations," Dean Valencia said.
Achievers
The Cebuana topnotchers were no pushovers when they took the exam in the first place.
Larrobis was already a certified public accountant when she began taking law. She ranked sixth in the exams that she took in October 1997, seven months after she graduated with honors from the University of San Jose-Recoletos.
"I felt relieved that the long wait is over," Larrobis said when interviewed at home Friday night.
She currently works as the senior associate of an auditing firm, a post that she had to leave temporarily when she prepared for the bar.
Jamero, for her part, finished magna cum laude from USC in 1999 where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology degree.
She was also a consistent honor student during her primary and secondary years at the St. Theresa's College.
Wake-up call
She works for the E-Telecare Global Solutions Inc. as a trainor in the company's human resource department.
"The examinations on the last Sunday (remedial law) crushed my spirits. I really felt that I had failed," she said.
The experience was so nerve-wracking that she applied for a job that "had nothing to do with law or my law studies" after coming back to Cebu.
Oddly enough, Melissa, Issa to her friends, credits her performance in the bar exams largely to the failing mark she unabashedly admits getting from Ombudsman Director Virginia Santiago, who teaches special penal laws in USC.
"I had to retake the course in my senior year. It was the first failure I got in my academic life. But, if anything, it made me work harder. It was a wake-up call. I realized that I was just as vulnerable as everyone else," she said.
Issa intends to stay with her current employer, high scores in the bar exams not withstanding.
"When I applied, they asked me if this was a temporary thing until the bar comes out and I told them no. Now, I want to show them that I can keep my word," she said.
San Carlos Bar Topnotchers
Originally Posted by Scalper
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