JULY 18, 2011-MONDAY BAR REVIEW LECTURES OF DEAN CARLOS ORTEGA IN CRIM.

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Now, in this type of bar exams that you will encounter, at least you have to be familiar with the format so that you will be saving time, although 60% of the exam this year would be the MCQs, yet the time element is your drawback, 3 times we conducted a dry run on this at the UP Law Center and always nobody finished, the third time this was tried there were 200 items, nobody were able to get half of it, so they lowered it to 150 and the 2 dry runs conducted involving laywers already, young lawyers from the DOJ were the ones who were tested to determine the time required for the exam. And none of them still finished the items, well that is bec. There is a given proposition, there are 4 choices, 3 of the choices are almost correct, only one is really derogatory but they cannot det. One without reading all the words and that is where time is of the essence, well you must be a fast reader. In this kind of exam. You cannot afford to be sleepy and that mind must be sharp to understand what is given as the proposition, then you go through the 4 suggested answers and you have to read them also bec. 3 are almost correct but there is one there that is accurate,that is in accord with the law. The purpose of the exam. Is to make by candidates adhere to the law bec. It was found out that many of the appeals raised to the high court were brought about by the unfamiliarity with the wordings of the law, that many lawyers give the provision of the law their own interpretation, where the wordings are strictly contrary to what they are writing, so even the high ct. Is clogged with so many appeals and some of them they have not decided for almost 10 yrs. Bec. Of this the chairperson of this years bar exam. Was with me at the UST, he had been teaching legal writing, in fact he has a book on legal writing, this time in the essay type of this years bar exam. Should be more or less read by you. The suggestion he said, tell them not to read commentaries anymore, just read the law, observe what is the wording of the law, bec. The choices are strictly on the provision of the law, but there are some suggestions there where the words given makes the choice wrong, so you have to be familiar with the provision that you may be able to come up with the correct answer. And more than that you choose the answer by blackening a circle given there opposite each suggested answer that are circled that you have to completely blacken, otherwise the machine will not react and you are not supposed to allow your blackening to get out of the circle, the machine will not read it. So, if you have a nervous hand, you have to control that. And I am telling this to you bec. Your drawback in this forthcoming bar exams is the time constraint but relatively it will be simpler for you to know how it should be answered. So, if you are a good reader, this time you will consume so much in reading the given proposition. So this should be your type of your preparation for this years bar exams. The chairman had been lenient to bar reviewees, matter of fact, he designed this type

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of bar exams bec. He was concerned about law graduates outside of metro manila who are handicapped by lack of review materials and he sympathizes with their plight, he said many of those who passed the bar are from metro manila, from the metropolitan areas, those in the provinces like in Bukidnon, Tuguegarao, that they have no chance in landing in the top ten bec. The materials reach them belatedly. In some areas, the current rulings reach the students 3 mos. Delayed. Aside from that, there are law schools for instance, one of the reviewees there who fortunately passed the bar, disclosed that the one teaching crim. Law is a labor arbiter, how could that be, it may be alright if he is a public prosecutor, but a labor arbiter, the procedure there is different, not crim. Proc. It is more of a highest bidder, it is more of amicable settlement, and that is why they are complaining about that, but since the UP was persuaded to open that review school in Lahug, Cebu, they are coming out with bar topnotchers, you must have known that that there are instances that 2 of the top 10 were from Cebu, but they usually come from UP or that sectarian school there, San Carlos, where the law students are good in English grammar. So that is the thing that you have to consider, go direct to the law, observe how the law is worded. For instance, in Art. 11 of Book I, you have there, justifying circum., Art. 12, you have exempting circum. A reading of the first parag. Of the article says, in the case of justifying circum. That the offender does not incur crim. Liab. but under Art. 12, the same projection but the article says, exempt from. Liab., now these 2 variations spell a lot of difference in law, when you say, does not incur crim. Liab., it follows there is no civil liab. You must have learned that civil liab. Under the Revised Penal Code arises on the basis of crim. Liab., but if you say exempt from crim. Liab. It impresses that there is civil liab. This is what Supreme Court calls a negative pregnant, you say something, you suggest another thing. So when the petition for review on certiorari in one case stated as a basis thereof that there is no direct evid. To support the judgment of the court a quo, the supreme court outright dismissed the pet. For lack of merit because the high ct. Said it is not necessary that a judgment be always supported by direct evidence, so when the petition, in saying that there is no direct evid. In effect says that there are indirect evid. and circumstantial evid. Is even accepted as a basis for conviction. So the high court said, this is negative pregnant, you say something, you suggest another thing. And that is the law. Now, that you will have to observe in this kind of bar exams. You cannot substitute whatever word you may be accustomed in using which is not in the law itself or which is not within the purview of the law involved. So you have to be acquainted with the provisions. The purpose of the chairman is to allow so many from the provinces to make it in this bar exams. He sympathizes with them. I have known him for some time. He ultimately became

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dean of the UST before he was taken in the Supreme Court and he is a soft hearted fellow because in my class in procedural law, I commonly fail more than 50 % of the class, in UST in one class we have no less than 40 students and remedial law is the law that lawyers apply in the handling of the case in court and during the deliberation, then dean Abad will say, Carling,baka pwede nang mahatak yan, I said how could we make it, he got 13 only in the prelims and in the finals, 16 only, how could we make it, and hell say, alright, lets us leave that, we will pass that later on, narrowed down until only 4 appeared to have failed the subject where initially it was about 23, that is how soft- hearted he is, kept on, o, balikan natin si ganito, sa yo na lang kasi bagsak yan, eh, so of course you give him a chance, you give him condition, you will allow him to graduate on condition that he will review strictly under this curriculum that we have prepared. So, he is that accommodating fellow that will not take it against you, no questions will be asked outside of the coverage of the curriculum. So, for the first time, Supreme Court came out with this syllabus of what will be included in the bar exams. So these kind of questions asking about the moon, about the duties of the captain, about outer space, this has been eliminated, because these really have no place in the bar exams. And I brought this out to the supreme court, I said, I dont think any Filipino will ever succeed going to the moon, so why ask about that, so i think that is imaginary. What should be asked to young people who are about to become lawyers are those legal problems encountered at their level. Imagine asking them what are the duties of the captain of the vessel, they did not study law to become a capt. Of the vessel, why ask them about the duties of the capt.? But that is because the high court does not control the questions or the problems given and there are examiners who are fond of using foreign terms indicative of colonial mentality, why ask what is the terry search rule, this was the designation given bec. That was the doctrine laid down in the case of terry vs. The state of ohio, but here we do not call it that by that name, we call it stop and frisk rule. So, Why not use the term that is applied here, why ask them about term that is foreign to them. So the idea in other words, is really to fail, whereas the candidate may not know the designation but he knows what the subject is, what is it about. In the last bar exam, there was another question there about res adjudicata in prison grey?, what do you mean res adjudicata in prison grey? many of the candidates were wondering what is it about, why prison and then grey, it is nothing but double jeopardy. If they ask about double jeopardy, everybody taking the bar will be able to answer that. But you ask them what do you understand about res adjudicata in prison grey. Bec. Res adjudicata is a doctrine in civil law, whereas this doct. referring to prison grey is double jeopardy, the essence is the same, but in crim.law you dont use res adjudicata, you use double jeopardy bec. that is how the

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constitution call the situation. And there are candidates who are disheartened when they encounter questions like this, they do not want to take the exams after that examination that they encounter questions which are out of the curriculum. I said that do you realize the number of lives that you are destroying. A student from UST who took the last bar exams where this prison grey was asked, after the third sunday, he went home to the province already, he does not want to continue, i said, you are crazy, whether you do not continue or otherwise, you will receive a failing grade, if that is your ultimate decision, you should take chances, you may survive, but if you will give up that does not speak well of a future lawyer, you should not be discouraged. Bec. he is an honor student, in the list of scholars and yet he was not able to answer some of the questions asked because they seem to be alien to him, so he proceeded, the outcome, he passed the bar at the last bar exam. So had he not continued, he would be a flunker. As I said, do you realize that you are ruining the lives of these young people. One who is an honor student in the college of law would not want to take the bar exams anymore because he is discouraged. Thats bad. And this, the present chairperson, Justice Bobby Abad wants to eliminate. This year, you will be encountering a different substance of bar exams. But im telling you the drawback is on the time constraints, so this is the aspect of your preparation that you should not neglect, train yourself to be a fast reader and train yourself to understand what is the thrust of the given proposition. Common reactions of bar examiners, the answers are off tangent, the answers are not responsive, they wanted the questions to meet their answers, their answers do not meet their questions. And this is a common complaint of bar examiners. I have been the chair of the committee correcting or suggesting answer to the bar exams in crim. Law. When we discuss the suggested answers, we invite the examiner, so the examiner will be there to realize the different approaches of the members of the committee. There are members of the committee who make some imaginary assumptions. Now, the bar examiner will be made to take note of that and that is why there are suggested alternative answers. So actually, if you have a good performance, your chances of passing the bar with these kind of checks instituted would be more than just passing the bar without any of these. When we discussed about the answers, bec. ( mp3 rec. 25.05