Philippines Bar Exams See Record High Turnout, Accommodating Diverse Circumstances

MANILA, Philippines — There are 11,900 aspirants who have taken the 2026 Bar Examinations on the first day of the examinations, on Sunday, September 6, Supreme Court Associate Justice and 2026 Bar Exams Chairperson Samuel Gaerlan said. This number is out of the 13,441 applicants which was cleared by the high court to take the examination for admission to the practice of law. The number of takers was higher than last year’s first-day takers of 11,437 candidates. “I think we have the highest number of applicants and examiners as compared to the previous years,” Gaerlan said. “They are inspired to take the bar exam, and maybe they were thinking that I am reasonable and fair, so they did not postpone taking the Bar Exam,” he added. On the first day, bar aspirants will take political and public international law in the morning and commercial and taxation laws in the afternoon. For the second day of the Bar Exams on September 9, bar aspirants will take Civil Law and Land Titles and Deeds and Labor Law and Social Legislation. On the last day of the exams, September 13, examinees will take Criminal Law and Remedial Law, Legal and Judicial Ethics, with Practical Exercises. According to Gaerlan, there are Bar examinees who face predicaments and disabilities yet choose to push through the examinations. Since the 2020/2021 Bar Examinations, popularly known as the “Best Bar Ever,” the Supreme Court has implemented digitized Bar Examinations through the Examplify software. However, in this year's examination, according to Gaerlan, there are three individuals who were permitted to take the examination in written form due to their conditions. One examinee, 64, has a chronic eye condition. Another examinee, 49, is undergoing therapy for a shoulder injury, and another examinee, 69, had limited exposure to computers. Four examinees were also allowed the assistance of a coder. “One lost sight through a rare form of meningitis. Another 75-year-old who struggles with computer literacy and a third one who lost both arms,” Gaerlan said. There is also one person deprived of liberty who was allowed to take the Bar Examinations in one of the 15 local testing centers. “Of course, with (the) implementation of our security protocols in coordination with the Office of the Judiciary Marshals,” Gaerlan said.