SC denies leakage in 2016 Bar exams

There is no truth to rumors on social media that some questions in the ongoing Bar Examinations have been leaked, the Supreme Court (SC) said Thursday.

Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, chairperson of the 2016 Bar Exams, said his office found out that the questions in commercial law and criminal law "remained confidential" before the scheduled exams on November 20.

"The findings show that there is no truth to any of these unsubstantiated social media rumors," Velasco said in a statement, which was read by SC spokesperson Theodore Te in a press conference.

The high court also shot down reports that the justices, with the deans of the different law schools, were looking into the possibility of canceling the exams or ordering the Bar candidates to retake the said subjects.

"There is no iota of truth to these statements. These unfounded reports that are being irresponsibly circulated on social media only undermine the efforts of the Bar chairperson to safeguard the confidentiality and integrity of the Bar exams," Velasco said.

Velasco requested the public not to add "more stress and anxiety to the examinees" and asked lawyers and judges, the academe, and the examinees to be vigilant of reports about alleged leakage.

The last time the SC ordered a retake was in 2003 when it discovered that the test questions in mercantile law had been leaked by the male staff of an examiner to some members of his fraternity.

A total of 6,831 law graduates have been allowed by the SC to take the 2016 Bar Examinations on all four Sundays of November at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

Arguably one of the toughest licensure exams in the country due to its low passing rate, the Bar Exams feature eight subjects: Political Law, Civil Law, Taxation, Labor Law, Criminal Law, Remedial Law, Mercantile Law and Legal and Judicial Ethics.

The exams will wrap up on Sunday. —KBK, GMA News