By Christopher Lloyd Caliwan | Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday (Feb. 3) urged Bar examinees and their supporters to refrain from holding send-off activities in compliance with health protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We also discourage send-offs of the exam takers to avoid any gathering or convergence of people. We have to focus on how we can conduct the Bar exams in a safe and peaceful way,” PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said in a statement ahead of the conduct of the examinations on Feb. 4 and 6.
Carlos also reminded examinees to strictly follow the health protocol before, during, and after taking every examination.
The PNP will deploy about 200 police officers in three university campuses in Cebu that will host the pilot implementation of the exams for aspiring lawyers outside Metro Manila.
Carlos assured that the deployment of personnel will start early morning on the said dates to ensure that motorists around the vicinity of the campuses will be informed of temporary road closures.
These participating schools are the University of Cebu in Banilad, the University of San Carlos-Main, and the University of San Jose Recoletos-Basak Pardo.
The Cebu City Police Office explained that the administrators of the listed schools requested that the rooms to be used for the Bar exams must not be exposed to any unnecessary noise outside.
The Supreme Court (SC) earlier said examinees who will test positive for COVID-19 will be denied entry to their local testing centers.
The prohibition will apply to all cases, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic.
The last time the Bar was held was in November 2019, which was topped by Mae Diane Azores of the University of Santo Tomas – Legazpi (formerly Aquinas University) with a grade of 91.05%.
This time, examinees who obtain an 85% or higher weighted score shall be recognized for exemplary performance “to enable a more reasonable approach to appraising and reporting on Bar Examination performance.” (PNA) -ag
