COURT operations will be suspended during the conduct of the 2022 Bar examinations in November, the Supreme Court said.
Last August 25, Associate Justice and 2022 Bar Exams Chairperson Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa requested for the closure of selected courts and the suspension of SC sessions because court staff and employees will be deployed to 14 testing sites all over the country.
“The Supreme Court, all Collegiate Courts and First and Second Level Courts in the National Capital Region, and in all cities where local testing sites are located, will be closed on November 9 and 16, 2022,” the en banc resolution dated August 30 said.
“The Supreme Court will suspend all its sessions from November 5 to 22, 2022, which correspond to the deployment dates of the bar personnel in the local testing centers, to enable the Court to direct its main resources, time, and work towards the holding of the 2022 Bar examination,” the resolution added.
The Bar exams will be held on November 9, 13, 16 and 20.
The same “regionalized and digitalized” set-up used in the 2020 and 2021 Bar exams held last February will also be utilized in November.
The SC decided to use the set-up in the 2020 and 2021 Bar exams due to the health and travel restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 11, 402 took the 2020/2021 Bar exams, with 8,241 or 72.28 percent passing.
The 72.28 percent passing rate is a record high, with the highest recorded in Bar history being the 1954 examination with a 75.17 percent passing rate.
The en banc said all officials, employees and staff of all courts who will be deployed and render service during the Bar examinations and post-Bar examination activities “be considered on official time” for the duration of their deployment to enable them to focus on their Bar-exams related work unencumbered by other court-related tasks.
