Palace: Soon-to-be lawyers welcome to join Duterte admin

Malacañang on Thursday encouraged the country's soon-to-be lawyers to join the government, saying their "idealism, integrity, and competence are most welcome" under the Duterte administration.

"We hope that many of our country’s new lawyers would pursue a career in government so that they may take part in helping us with our shared goal of creating genuine reforms for the nation," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. told reporters.

Last year, half of the 12 topnotchers in the 2016 Bar examinations opted to work for the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), the government's chief counsel.

A total of 1,724 out of the 6,748 examinees passed in the 2017 edition, which had a passing rate of 25.55 percent.

A graduate from the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City topped the test, marking the second consecutive year that the topnotcher came from a provincial law school. — MDM, GMA News