SC orders LEB to answer plea vs. law school admission test

The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Legal Education Board (LEB) to respond to the petition questioning the constitutionality of the law that was used as basis for conducting a nationwide entrance exam for aspiring law students.

During its weekly session on Tuesday, the high court ordered LEB chairman Emerson Aquende and LEB member and former Court Administrator Zenaida Elepaño to comment within 10 days on the petition filed by retired Makati City Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel.

The retired judge is a criminal law professor at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law.

No copy of the petition was available as of posting time, but the SC said Pimentel also asked the high tribunal to stop the implementation of LEB Memorandum Order No. 7, which set the conduct of the Philippine Law School Admission Test (PhilSAT) nationwide.

The first PhilSAT exam was held on April 16 in Baguio City, Metro Manila, Legazpi City, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, Tacloban City, Davao City, Zamboanga City, and Cagayan de Oro City.

The LEB, in its memorandum issued December last year, cited Section 7e of Republic Act 7662 (Legal Education Reform Act of 1993) — which empowers the body to "prescribe minimum standards for law admission" — as basis for conducting the nationwide entrance exam.

The LEB said PhilSAT was a way to measure the academic potential of an examinee to pursue the study of law.

Exam items include communication and language proficiency, critical thinking skills, and verbal and quantitative reasoning.

Honor graduates granted professional civil service eligibility, who are enrolling within two years from finishing college, are no longer required to take the exam, which costs P1,500.

Law schools in the country will still be allowed to admit students who took the exams but failed to meet the passing score of 55 percent, as long as the school submits a written justification explaining the reasons for admitting the applicant and the general weighted average obtained by the applicant for his/her undergraduate degree.

The schools also have the option to impose additional requirements for admission such as supplemental entrance tests "to measure the competencies and/or personality of the applicant" and interview.

The LEB requires all law schools to comply with the memorandum. Otherwise, the law school will be subject to sanctions including a fine of up to P10,000. — MDM, GMA News