By Nico Angelo Solon
There is a saying that goes, “When the student is ready, the mentor will show up,” and the San Beda College Alabang – School of Law (SBCA-SOL) bar examinees have never been more prepared as they face the 2020/21 Bar Examinations. The upcoming bar exam has been in the works for over two years and will be taken by two batches, the largest bar-taking population in recent history.
SBCA-SOL bar examinees are trained by the mentors of the Centralized Bar Operation’s (CBO) bar mentorship program, one of them being a leading authority in Philippine Labor Law and an embodiment of the School of Law’s standards of excellence—Atty. Paulino Ungos III.
“I had in mind [the] Dean’s call for the faculty to help our examinees. When I received an invitation from the SBCA-Centralized Bar Operations, I immediately said yes,” Atty. Ungos III remarked when he was asked why he chose to be a mentor despite his busy schedule.
As our graduates have evolved from the ‘cubs’ they were in their freshman year to the ‘lions’ they are now, Atty. Ungos III’s teaching style has adapted with every increase of their appetite for legal knowledge. He relates that, “being a professor entails a different dynamic in that the focus is guiding them to what they should know for their bar exams.”
As a bar mentor, Atty. Ungos III is pragmatic and precise, sharing that he teaches the bar examinees how to answer in accordance with the standard rubrics in Bar Bulletin No. 25 and applying them in the question and answers of the mock bar examinations. This puts his mentees at an advantage as they learn how to craft their answers to the satisfaction of the bar examiner.
He teaches those under his wing to pray and answer with confidence. While it is true that legal knowledge can be at a person’s fingertips, he reminds them to balance everything holistically—mind, body, and spirit.
Indeed, the upcoming bar examination is unprecedented. But our Bedan bar examinees have prepared and struggled for this—they are now ready to fight tooth and nail and dominate. ∎