Next Bar exams to be held not earlier than February 2021 — Leonen

The next Bar examinations will not be held earlier than February 2021, a Supreme Court justice said Monday.

In a bulletin, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the 2020 Bar chair, said the court en banc resolved to announce the schedule of the next examinations to a later date to give time for a "more considered deliberation."

"For the guidance of all concerned, however, please note that the next Bar examinations will definitely not be held at a date earlier than February 2021," Leonen said.

The court earlier announced the postponement of the 2020 Bar examinations to 2021 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The next Bar exams will be held in Manila and Cebu City.

Before the pandemic, the Philippines' licensure test for lawyers was usually held on the four Sundays of November each year at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

In the 2019 Bar exams, 2,103 of 7,685 examinees passed, with Mae Diane Azores of the University of Santo Tomas-Legazpi as the topnotcher.

The country's newest lawyers were sworn in last week through videoconferencing. They will become full-fledged lawyers upon their signing of the roll of attorneys. — Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/RSJ, GMA News