SC: 2010 Bar exam results out Thursday

(Updated 3:26 p.m.) The results of the 2010 Bar examinations will be released on Thursday, the Supreme Court announced on Tuesday. At a news briefing, SC Public Information Office deputy chief Gleoresty Guerra said that Chief Justice Corona has called for a special en banc (full court) session on Thursday morning "for the decoding of the 2010 Bar examinations results." In the session, the justices will also determine the passing percentage for the exams. The decoding "is the process where the [SC] orders the Office of the Bar Confidant to open the sealed envelopes with the names of the candidates who passed the exams," said Office of the Bar Confidant head Cristina Layusa. After the decoding, the names will be flashed on video screens mounted near the Supreme Court’s Padre Faura gate. The exact time the names will be flashed depends on the time the decoding ends and the number of those who passed the exams, Layusa said. “The decoding is always with the presence of the chair of the Bar exams. For this year, it was Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales. So Justice Morales will be with us during the decoding," she added. 2010 Bar blast The examinations were held last September and marred by a grenade-throwing incident that left close to 50 people, mostly law students outside the venue, injured. The incident was blamed on warring fraternities. The National Bureau of Investigation has filed multiple frustrated murder and multiple attempted murder charges against lone suspect Anthony Leal Nepomuceno of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. The Department of Justice is still conducting a preliminary investigation on Nepomuceno, who has repeatedly maintained his innocence. A total of 4,856 law graduates took the 2010 Bar examinations at the De La Salle University on Taft Avenue in Manila. The examinees were composed 2,521 new takers and 2,335 repeaters. The Supreme Court conducts the Bar examinations pursuant to Article VIII, Section 5 of the Constitution which provides that it shall have the power to promulgate rules governing the admission to the practice of law. This year's Bar examinations will be held at the University of Sto. Tomas campus in Manila in November. Last January, the Supreme Court promulgated new rules for the 2011 Bar exams. - KBK, GMA News