Bar results withheld for second day

The Supreme Court has twice postponed the release of the results of the September 1999 bar examinations after 14 of the 15 justices could not come up with a final decision on the test's passing percentage.

Reliable sources revealed the justices met at 9 a.m. last Thursday, only to deliberate again at 2 p.m. on the same day, but came up empty-handed, leaving many bar examinees uncertain about their future.

The jurists deliberated again in a special en banc session at 3 p.m. yesterday and adjourned three and a half hours later, again without any results.

The bone of contention of the meeting, as persistent rumors have it, was that Justice Fidel Purisima, the chairman of last year's bar, was trying to stretch to 40 percent the initial 16 percent passing percentage. Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. is in Cebu City.

"There must be really something wrong," a court insider noted, saying this was the very first time SC justices have continuously deferred release of exam results, not to mention failed to agree on the passing rate.

Speculations have it that Purisima has been trying to convince his colleagues to stretch the passing mark to 40 percent, which is one percentage point higher than last year's.

There was also this information that he was just trying to accommodate either his niece or nephew in a prestigious accounting firm.

If the results will not be released later this afternoon, they will most likely be released next week in Baguio City, where the jurists will be spending their summer break and at the same time conducting sessions.

Many barristers have been in a quandary and have kept on calling justice reporters to ask about the results. Some of them have even complained that they can no longer sleep.