The trauma caused by the Marawi siege was not an excuse for hundreds of barristers from the Mindanao State University (MSU) to be demoralized, but they even took it as a motivation to do well in the 2017 bar examinations which started, Sunday, at the University of Santo Tomas (UST).

According to one of MSU’s bar operators Halim Noor, the MSU Marawi campus even had the most number of bar examinees from among the school’s three campuses. MSU-Iligan had 50 aspiring lawyers, and MSU-General Santos City had 60.

And instead of being bogged down by the five-month war, the MSU examinees were ready to give their best in the bar exams.

“Marami talagang nag-ta-top from Marawi in the recent bar exams kaya hindi rason ‘yung nangyari sa Marawi para ma-demoralize sila, mas naging motivational tool pa para ‘yung pangarap na maging abogado sila ay matupad nila,” Noor underscored, adding that the main MSU campus in Marawi was one of the areas in the city which was not affected by the war.

Noor said most of the Marawi examinees were already in Manila for their review classes when the conflict broke out in May.

But he did admit that many of the Marawi campus barristers were also affected by news of bombings, deaths and destroyed homes in their city, especially those who had relatives and friends caught in the middle of the way.

“Wala silang choice, wala na silang magagawa. Andito na sila But they had no choice, they couldn’t do anything anymore because they were already here),” he said.

Third year law student Hanan Yahya added that becoming a lawyer had long been the dream of the examinees, even before the siege.

“Maliit lang yung number ng lawyers sa amin kaya pag pumasa sila, talagang magiging help sila sa Marawi (There are only a few lawyers in our city. So if they pass, they will really be of big help to Marawi),” she said.

Noor, who is also a student at the Marawi campus agreed. “’Yung iba sa kanila ay nadatnan ko sa law school at talagang gusto nila maging abogado community (There are those who were already in law school when I came to the school. They really want to become lawyers)to serve the people to give back to the community (There are those who were already in law school when I came to the school. They really want to become lawyers and eventually serve the people),” he said.

A total of 7,257 were scheduled to take the bar exams in the four Sundays of November.

Espana-Blumentritt Police Community Precinct commander Police Sr. Insp. Philipp Ines said there was no untoward incident on the first day of the exams.

“Peaceful, wala tayong untoward incident simula pa kagabi and we expect na talagang yun ang mangayayari,” he said.

There was a a total of 205 men from the Manila Police District (MPD), 208 from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), personnel from the Supreme Court (SC), UST, and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), as well as force multipliers from the barangay and other non-government organizations, who were deployed in around the UST campus.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Jaimie Rose R. Aberia

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