Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 9) — The Supreme Court en banc passed a resolution allowing the 2019 Bar passers to take their oath online.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Supreme Court said the ceremony for the 2,103 Bar passers will done via online video conference and will broadcast nationwide on TV due to quarantine restrictions.
The statement said, “The Court noted that the current health crisis and COVID-19 pandemic made it not possible to hold the oath-taking ceremony the traditional way, as it had to take into consideration the existing government policies on public health, particularly on mass gatherings.”
However, the Supreme Court made it clear that the non-traditional oath-taking ceremony would be “exclusive only for the 2019 BAR passers.”
In a separate statement on Tuesday, the Supreme Court gave guidelines on how the ceremony would be conducted.
It said all Bar passers must register before June 18, 2020 to be able to join the ceremony which will be held at 2 p.m. on June 25, 2020.
The prescribed dress code is black graduation robes or togas, sans the cap.
“During the ceremony, each of the Bar passers shall take a photograph or screenshot of the video conference showing both him/her at the En Banc proceedings. The digital copy of this photograph shall be brought on the day of the signing of the roll of attorneys as it will serve as proof of one’s attendance during the oath-taking ceremony,” it added.
The Supreme Court further reminded attendees of the solemnity of the event and were reminded to conduct themselves with “utmost courtesy and respect ” due the court and the ceremony.
The results on the 2019 Bar exam were released on April 29 with a University of Santo Tomas-Legazpi graduate as the topnotcher.
Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, the exams chairperson, said that 2,103 out of 7,685 examinees who took the 2019 Bar exams passed.
There will be no Bar examinations for 2020, with the SC deciding to postpone the four-week exams usually held in November at the University of Santo Tomas campus in Manila due to the coronavirus crisis. The tests will push through “sometime in 2021,” with another testing center to be set up in Cebu City.
