Supporters welcome 87-year-old Bar taker after finishing 4-day exams

A little past five o’clock in the afternoon, retired Col. Ibarra Mariano stepped out of University of Santo Tomas on the final day of the bar exams.

Supporters and well-wishers warmly greeted the 87-year-old Mariano during the "Salubong" - a tradition among supporters of Bar takers, usually done at the close of the four-day Bar examinations.

Photo by Danny Pata

The octogenarian had made his way to the UST for four consecutive Sundays to take the exams, but this did not seem burdensome to the aspiring lawyer.

“I finished law school in 1967. But then I was called to duty [in the Philippine Constabulary],” he said.

He had been stationed in different parts of the Philippines, fighting wherever there was an uprising.

But despite all the traveling and the fighting he had seen, his ambition of becoming a lawyer remained.

When he retired in 1995, Mariano made took his first attempt at the Bar exams. Unfortunately, he fell short of the passing rate.

An immediate follow-up attempt to become lawyer had to be set aside, though, as he had to cater to the needs of his five children, 16 grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

“It’s only this year that I decided, because I know lots of poor people who are denied equal protection of the law because of poverty. I want to help and that’s my vision in life,” the retired Constabulary colonel explained.

“I’ll be very happy if God will give me the privilege to be a lawyer so I can serve people.”

And so after two decades of not even touching a law book, he made his second attempt to pass the Bar exam this year.

“I think my family will be very happy if I pass,” Mariano smiled.

As he started to walk away to meet his children, Mariano was greeted by a fellow bar examinee who looked young enough to be his grandchild.

“Good luck po sa’tin. Sana makapasa tayo pareho,” she said before bidding the elderly gentleman goodbye. — LBG/DVM, GMA News