SUPREME Court Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando will be the chairperson of next year’s Bar Exams.
Associate Justice and 2022 Bar Exams Committee chairperson Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa passed the torch to Hernando yesterday, the fourth and last day of the 2022 Bar exams.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo congratulated Caguioa for the successful conduct of the “digitalized and regionalized” Bar exams.
“Let me congratulate Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa and his team for taking our big leap towards Bar reform another step forward. Indeed, through our new modality, we have significantly given our examinees a more level playing field, and as the Ateneo prayer goes a chance equal with those in stripe,” Gesmundo said.
Caguioa said the success of the Bar exams could not have happened without the efforts of his staff and all Bar personnel.
“Your hard work made possible the nationwide conduct of the Bar exams. I hope that you know that each one of you has been vital in the success of this year’s Bar exams,” he said.
Hernando said the next Bar examinations will be held on September 2023 and will be condensed into a 3-day test spread across a week.
The Supreme Court said 9,183 Bar candidates out of the 10,006 applicants completed the 2022 Bar examinations on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the SC said the Civil Service Commission (CSC) is eyeing the replication of the setup of this year’s Bar examinations for its digitalized and localized licensure exams.
CSC chairperson Karlo Nograles yesterday led a group of CSC observers and joined Caguioa for a tour of the Bar exams testing center at the Ateneo de Manila University in Katipunan, Quezon City.
Nograles had requested Gesmundo in a November 8 letter to allow a CSC delegation to observe the operations of the Bar Examinations in the Command Center at the Ateneo de Manila University, where the conduct of the exams in 14 local testing centers nationwide is monitored.
Gesmundo endorsed the letter to Caguioa.
“In line with our vision to transition from the conventional pen-and- paper examinations, the Commission plans to introduce digitalized and localized examinations for the Civil Service Examinations — Pen and Paper Test sustaining the momentum of the digital shift pioneered by the Supreme Court,” the CSC said.
“As we transition to this digitalized platform, we would like to request the support of the Supreme Court in a collaborative endeavor for the adoption of policies and methodologies towards this digital shift,” Nograles said.
Nograles said that aside from observing the actual conduct of the Bar examinations, their visit was “to benchmark the procedures and operations for formal integration of the Court’s best practices in the localized and digitalized civil service examinations.”
Nograles said the CSC has resumed the administration of the Civil Service Examinations — Pen and Paper Test from almost two years of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
