BETTER performance shown by law schools in the regions in the past Bar Examinations appeared to have prompted the Legal Education Board (LEB) to allow the opening of more schools offering the course in these areas.
In the most recent Bar results, law schools based in the provinces outshone more established shools in Metro Manila when its takers dominated the Top 10, particularly those from the cities of Cebu and Dumaguete. Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) Law School produced an examinee who ranked fifth.
One school that has been allowed by LEB to reopen this year is the Rizal Memorial Colleges Law School. This is the fourth school offering kaw course in Davao City after Ateneo de Davao, University of Mindanao and Jose Maria Colleges. It is Davao Region's eighth law school.
After a hiatus, the RMC-Law School is scheduled to start classes on July 3.
Lawyer Ramon Edison Batacan, managing partner of the Batacan Montejo Vicencio (BMV) law firm, has been appointed dean of the school. He was a law professor of ADDU of long standing and past Davao City chapter president and eastern Mindanao governor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
Batacan said RMC recently received notice from the LEB that its application to offer a law course has been favorably considered.
RMC will be the eighth Davao college to offer law as a course. The other seven are Ateneo, University of Mindanao (UM)-Davao City, Jose Maria College, UM-Tagum, St. Mary’s College and St. Thomas More in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, and Cor Jesu Colleges in Digos City, Davao del Sur.
Six of the schools recently produced more than 100 new lawyers who successfully hurdled the 2016 Bar examinations, the area's biggest "harvest" on record.
Admitting it is the biggest challenge of his professional life, Batacan said being dean of the newest law school is a gargantuan task.
"However, I have no doubt I can hurdle the challenge with the tremendous support of the school management," referring to Leo Magno, RMC chair of the board, and his mother, Evelyn Abellera-Magno, its president.
Upon formal receipt of the LEB certificate, RMC will also break ground for the construction of a four-story building to house RMC schools of law and business.
Batacan, who is also RMC's corporate board secretary, said the new law school will adopt the mentoring style of teaching, deviating from the traditional Socratic system, wherein the law professor as the sole authority in the classroom lords it over the learning process like a dictator.
In the "mentoring" system, he said, there is open communication between professor and students and they are encouraged to form themselves into groups to freely discuss the subject matters, instead of the professor spoon-feeding and sometimes "terrorizing" the students.
Before its closure in the 80's, RMC had produced some of the most prominent lawyers in Davao and elsewhere in the country, according to Raul Tolentino Sr., a law practitioner for five decades now and who had studied in RMC from Grade 1 to second year Law until he transferred to San Beda College, the alma mater of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Tolentino, whose three children are also lawyers, two of them judges, identified some of the RMC law school alumni as Judge Roberto "Kid" Canete, Judge Guillermo Clarin, Judge Jose Majaducon, Judge Antonina Escovilla, Cabinbanan Mamukid (retired regional director of the Office of Muslim Affairs), Jose Goyo, Vidal dela Cruz, Irineo Benavides, Eddie Laurente, Ramon Garay, Romeo Tomas and Reynaldo Nolasco.
The last dean of the old RMC college of law was the late Jose Arro, retired judge of the Court of First Instance, forerunner of the Regional Trial Court, Tolentino said.
Dabawenyo from Hawaii writes
A Dabawenyo based in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA recently wrote this column to express interest to work with the Duterte administration, particularly on one of its ambitious infrastructure projects, the Mindanao Railway System.
He immediately e-mailed this letter upon reading Tuesday's Biz Talk piece "Mindanao railway project gets support."
Here it is:
Dear Nelson,
I live in Honolulu and presently working as Quality Manager for a local construction company that builds the Stations for the the Honolulu Railway Railway Transit Authority.
I grew up in Malalag and got my civil engineering degree at UM Davao. My family moved to USA sometime in 1989.
So, today, when I read your report, I got excited when I read the part "But Dominguez allayed this fear, saying the government is counting on overseas Filipino workers scattered across the globe to return home and help in implementing these projects..."
I hope I can get in touch with the right contact through your help. I don't know Sec. Dominguez or the close circle of President Duterte. I am willing to work for President Duterte's Administration to make the railway project a reality.
My knowledge and experience in building railways system will surely contribute to the common goal of Mindanaoans. I hope to hear from you soon. Daghang salamat Nelson.
Fidel Eviota II (feviota@gmail.com).
nelsonbagaforo@gmail.com
