SC extends financial aid to Saudi Arabia OFWs in 2024 Shari’Ah bar exams

The Supreme Court has extended financial aid to overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to allow them to return to the Philippines and take the 2024 Shari’Ah Bar Examinations. 

“Because we are still not prepared, at least this year, to conduct an online examination. And so they have to come home,” Shari’Ah Bar Chairperson Associate Justice Maria Filomena Singh said at a press conference.

“And so we shouldered the airfare plus the hotel accommodations of the OFWs coming from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” she added.

She said they extended an application fee of only P2,000 for 696 individuals who qualified as indigents.

Singh said they extended an installment payment scheme for some applicants.

“So these innovations are testimony to the Supreme Court’s relentless pursuit to ensure that justice is accessible to all Filipinos, without any distinction,” Singh said. 

STS

According to Singh, 30 OFWs were also allowed to participate in an online Shari’Ah Training Seminar (STS), which is needed to take the Shari’Ah Bar examination.

“The hybrid format allowed our OFWs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to participate in the STS. They wrote a letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs through a request of our Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, to allow our interested OFWs to attend the online STS and thereafter to take the exam,” Singh said.

The Shari’Ah Bar exams took place on April 28, Sunday and concluded on May 2, Thursday.

The exams are administered to allow Muslim professionals to qualify and practice before the Shari’ah Courts in the Philippines constituted under Presidential Decree (PD) 1083, or the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines.

She said that a total of 604 applicants took the examinations at the Ateneo de Davao University, 197 applicants took the exam at the University of the Philippines, and 77 applicants took the test on rapid pen-on-paper.

A total of 852 applicants finished the exams.

“The results will be announced in July and the oathtaking will be scheduled in August. We will inform you once the plans are finalized,” she said.

Singh said the chairperson of the 2025 Shari’Ah bar will be Associate Antonio Kho Jr. —NB, GMA Integrated News