More than 500 miss first day of 2018 Bar exams

More than 500 of the 8,701 expected Bar candidates missed the first day of the 2018 Bar Examinations over the weekend, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.

A total of 543 aspiring lawyers failed to show up last Sunday, as "[p]er Bar Confidant Office, 8,158 took the Bar last Sunday," court spokesperson Maria Victoria Gleoresty Guerra said.

They will no longer be able to take the rest of the Bar exams, she added.

The number of expected candidates for this year's professional licensure test for Philippine lawyers is the highest in recent years, the Court earlier announced. Last year, 6,748 law graduates took the Bar exam. A total of 1,724 takers passed.

The whole-day exam at the University of Santo Tomas last Sunday covered political and international law and labor law and social legislation. The continuation of the test on November 11, will cover civil law and taxation law.

Bar takers will be tested on mercantile law and criminal law on November 18, and on remedial law and legal and judicial ethics and practical exercises on November 25. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KBK, GMA News