ILOILO City – The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) cited seven police officers who recently passed the Bar exam to become new lawyers.
They were recognized during the flag-raising ceremony on April 18 at the PRO-6 Grandstand in Camp Delgado.
The seven new lawyers are the following:
* Police Major Danny Lamera
* Police Major Garry Nee Tungala
* Police Lieutenant Colonel Jerick Filosofo
* Police Master Sergeant Jhon Edmar Espinosa
* Police Staff Sergeant Warren Calzado
* Police Staff Sergeant Dennis Jabagat
* Police Corporal John Michael Recto
Police Brigadier General Flynn Dongbo awarded each of them with the Philippine National Police (PNP) Efficiency Medal (Medalya ng Kasanayan).
The new police-lawyers, however, won’t be automatically assigned at the PNP Legal Service. They have to decide for themselves which career path to take.
Their passing the Bar is nevertheless a welcome development.
Last year, the PNP announced it was recruiting more professionals from various fields to help strengthen its human resources and capabilities in serving the people and addressing various challenges.
The National Police Commission (Napolcom), through Resolution 2021-0612, allowed the PNP to recruit more lawyers, doctors, and information technology experts through lateral entry into the police service.
A total of 8,241 out of 11,402 passed the 2020/21 Bar examination, or 72.28 percent. The results were released last week.
That Bar examination was the first-ever digitalized Bar examination with only two months of waiting time to learn the result.
In 2020, the Bar exam was postponed because the country was in lockdown due to the coronavirus disease pandemic. In 2021, it was rescheduled anew following the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Then, in 2022, the high court decided to reduce the Bar exam coverage and set the examination date for two days — Jan. 23-25 but due to another COVID-19 surge, the examination was moved to February.
The two-day examination was pushed through on Feb. 4 and 6 from 29 testing sites located in 22 local government units.
The Bar examination committee led by Justice Leonen made adjustments and introduced innovations taking into consideration the existing pandemic which includes the health protocols imposed by the government.
The 2020/2021 Bar examination is a lot of first—first digital examination, first to conduct in several testing sites around the country, first time conducted for two days instead of the month-long four Sunday exam.
The 2020/21 Bar examination also departed from tradition by not releasing the top 10 examinees./PN
