86.7% of 13,193 examinees present on Day 1 of Bar 2025
Metro Manila, Philippines - A total of 11,437 aspiring lawyers were present on the first day of Bar examinations nationwide on Sunday, Sept. 7.
Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, 2025 Bar chairperson, said the present examinees make up 86.7 percent of the total 13,193 test takers. This is the highest number of admitted examinees since 2000, based on data from the Office of the Bar Confidant.
Of the examinees, 5,215 are new takers, 4,239 are retakers, and 1,984 are refreshers or those who failed three times.
The first day of the Bar exam covers Political and Public International Law, which accounts for 15% of the total grade, and Commercial and Taxation Laws, which make up 20%.
The exams are conducted in two sessions: the morning session runs from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., while the afternoon session is held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The second day of the examinations, scheduled for Sept. 10, will be for Civil Law and Labor Law and Social Legislation, while the final day on Sept. 14 is allotted for Criminal Law and Remedial Law.
“My exams will be limited to doctrines and principles and my own cases. So, I would like to think that every subject is equally situated with the other subjects and that uniform standard is reasonableness and fairness,” Lazaro-Javier said in a press conference.
Asked about her advice to exam takers who would plan to not push through with the next set of exams due to difficulty, the associate justice said: “Keep going. Success is not a product of just one decision or one action; It’s a series of decisions to show up and do your best.”
Lazaro-Javier said there will be no new rules and no further innovations for the Bar examinations in the next three years.
“We want our Bar to be predictable as it can be to be fair to the Bar takers. It will continue to be digitalized. It will continue to be regionalized,” she said.
The University of Santo Tomas serves as the national headquarters for the Bar examinations. It is also one of the 14 designated testing centers across the country.
Other testing centers include San Beda University - Manila, New Era University, Manila Adventist College, San Beda College - Alabang, University of the Philippines - Bonifacio Global City, and Ateneo de Manila University School of Law.
Additional provincial testing centers are Saint Louis University, University of Nueva Caceres, University of San Jose - Recoletos, Dr. V. Orestes Romualdez Educational Foundation, Central Philippine University, Ateneo de Davao University, and Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology.
The examinations are conducted under the Supreme Court’s guidelines.
Based on assessment, Lazaro-Javier said the first day of Bar exams is “absolutely peaceful.”
NewsWatch Plus interns Angeline Mae Villanueva and Steven Sañajan contributed to this report.
