LAWYERS and aspiring law students have petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to abolish the Legal Education Board (LEB) and its conduct of the nationwide law school admission exam, asserting that it should be the SC that should be holding it.
During the oral argument Tuesday, Karla Marie T. Tumulak, legal counsel for a second group of petitioners, said administering national law school admission tests should be under the SC as it is “within the powers of the SC to promulgate rules concerning to the admission to the practice of law.”
“We understand that there might be other matters the SC is busy with. We submit, Your Honor, the SC currently has a committee on legal education and bar matters, Your Honor, and the problem that we see here is precisely the fact that the LEB under Republic Act 7662 is an entity which is not answerable to this court,” she said.
However, Associate Justice Jose C. Reyes, Jr. said the examination might be done twice a year on top of the bar examinations. “Are you not making it difficult (for) the Supreme Court which is principally engaged in adjudication and then we have bar exams once a year.”
“Maybe this honorable court perhaps creates a body that will possibly conduct the administration of the exam, Your Honor,” Ms. Tumulak said.
Baldomero C. Estanzo, also legal counsel for the petitioners, said it should only be the SC or thr law schools themselves that should conduct the admissions test.
However, Associate Justice Francis H. Jardaleza challenged him on the point that the SC may impose the same payment and limited testing centers.
“I’m sure, your honor, that the court will not do that because the Supreme Court is fair, just, and equitable,” Mr. Estanzo said in response.
“It seems to me…there is a disconnect, distrust (in) the way the LEB did this. But as they say, be careful what you pray for. If you ask the court to be the one to exercise the power, you also don’t know among these 15 magistrates, they may have standards, for example, higher than the LEB. So I have a problem with that,” Mr. Jardaleza said.
The case stemmed from the petitions filed by retired Makati regional trial court Judge Oscar B. Pimentel, along with several others including lawyers and aspiring law students, on April 7, 2017. That petition was later consolidated with a subsequent petition filed in November 2018 by students. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

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