After Ondoy, festive bar exam atmosphere returns to Manila

One week after tropical storm “Ondoy" (Ketsana) flooded Metro Manila, a festive atmosphere returned to a stretch of Taft Avenue in Manila as Bar examinees took their last examinations on Sunday.

Traditionally, family and friends line the street and cheer as examinees arrive at the De La Salle University (DLSU) campus to take the rigorous exams over four Sundays in September. But the main thoroughfare was one of the many streets in the metropolis flooded last Sunday when the scheduled last day of the Bar exams was postponed by the Supreme Court, which administers the exams.

Radio dzBB’s Lito Laparan reported that examinees' supporters from various law schools in the country, including fraternities and sororities, were in the usual celebratory mood as they set up booths and tents near the DLSU campus, holding vigil until their friends exit the campus. Most examinees spend four years or more studying law and preparing for the Bar, which less than one fourth end up passing. The drumming and the cheering as examinees enter the campus for the exams are intended to raise morale and calm nerves.

The stretch of Taft Avenue from Quirino to Vito Cruz was closed to traffic to keep the examinees from being distracted, even as supporters stayed near the avenue’s center island, often under tents.

Many of the supporters who came from nothern Luzon – which typhoon “Pepeng" (Parma) battered over the weekend – arrived as early as 5 a.m.

Examinees on Sunday were to take the exams for remedial law, legal ethics, and practical exercises. The exam was to end at 5 p.m.