Leonen's statement re 2020/21 Bar Exams Results
STATEMENT ON THE RESULTS OF THE 2020/21 BAR EXAMINATIONS Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen Chairperson, 2020/21 Bar Examinations The bar examinations for 2020 and 2021 cannot be compared with any past bar examinations. These were conducted under challenging circumstances never before faced by any bar examinee, let alone any bar chairperson. This Court creatively adjusted and conducted these qualifying examinations with very critical reforms. The 11,790 bar applicants went through not only several waves of COVID-19 pandemic, but also a super typhoon that battered the Visayas region, and the uncertainties brought about by the effects of the pandemic and adjustments of its corresponding health regulations. There was no large national government licensure examination that provided a model for the implementation of the bar examinations under these conditions. Even the approaches during World War II were not appropriate to the conditions we faced. Building