The Philippine Bar Examination is the professional licensure examination for lawyers in the Philippines. It is the only professional licensure exam in the country that is not supervised by the Professional Regulation Commission. The exam is exclusively administered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines through the Supreme Court Bar Examination Committee.

Law schools with the highest bar passing rates from 1996 to 2005 include:

Ateneo de Manila Law School – 89.19%
San Beda College of Law – 85.27%
University of the Philippines College of Law – 85.19%
University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law – 56.70%
Far Eastern University Institute of Law – 26.25%

Results of the 2009 Bar Exams should be published by the Supreme Court by the end of March 2010 or first week of April 2010. Please bookmark or subscribe to this site so we can notify you once the list has been released.

Forbes 2010 released its Billionaires list with a total of 1,011 ranked billionaires of the world. On the top of the list is Mexico’s telco tycoon Carlos Slim Helu who have beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett as the wealthiest person in the world. William Gates III comes next then Warren Buffett both from United States.

Youngest in the top 50 were Google’s Sergey Brin, 36, and Larry Page, 37, tied at No. 24 with $17.5 billion. Other technology related billionaires in the top 50 were Steve Ballmer at No. 33, Paul Allen of Microsoft at No. 37, Jeff Bezos of Amazon at No. 43.

Asia’s Tychoon Henry Sy ranked 201st and tobacco king Lucio Tan on the 582nd of the world’s billionaires.

It’s in the news last night that the Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology issued a low-level alert Saturday that residents should watch for potential tsunami warnings in connection with the recent Earthquake happened in Chile. At the moment no evacuation needed but local officials on the eastern side of the archipelago should always be ready when a high Tsunami warning comes.

Back in 1960 a 9.5-magnitude quake struck Chile resulted a tsunami that killed 140 people in Japan, 61 in Hawaii and 32 in the Philippines.

It was posted from the PCSO Lotto Official website that the jackpot prize for the superlotto 6 49 for tonight’s draw is 121,911,130.80 pesos. Then just 15 minutes ago it was heard from a TV news that the Jackpot prize hit P125,000,000 million one hour before the closing of all lotto outlet in the Philippines.

Other Lotto Draws for Feb 4, 2010 :

PowerLotto 2/4/2010 94,011,093.00

Lotto 6/42 2/4/2010 14,302,764.00

Megalotto 6/45 2/4/2010 4,500,000.00

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced that 550 out of 1,092 or 50.37% passed the Architect Licensure Examination given by the Board of Architecture held in Manila last January 15 and 17, 2010.

List of Architecture Board Passers January 2010 here.

The oath-taking ceremony will be held on March 14, 2010, 1PM at the Fiesta Pavilion, Manila Hotel, One Rizal Park, Manila.

The death of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde today was a shock to many as he was found unconscious in his office bathroom today. Cerge Remonde was Director-General of the Presidential Management Staff, and finally, on February 1, 2009, he was appointed as Press Secretary.

Remonde graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Visayas (UV) with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1986, he studied Cooperation and Development Studies at the Afro-Asia Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 1992, he took part in the United States State Department International Visitors Program in Washington, D.C. Remonde is married to newspaper columnist Marit Stinus.

A 7-pointer earthquake hit the island country of Haiti in the Pacific. More details of the earthquake were sent over Twitter as communication lines and transportation has been heavily affected. Hundreds of buildings, including the presidential building, has been toppled down.

Victims of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti are asking for help from international organizations and other countries. It’s still uncertain how many people were affected, especially in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. This earthquake is the biggest one to hit Haiti in over 200 years.

An incident occured last October 15, 2009 when parents of six year old boy falsely claimed that their son floated away in a home made balloon travelling 7,000 feet. That Incident attracted and worreid people around the world including authorities and national guard as they tried to save the boy but found nobody on that balloon.

After few days it was discovered the incident was a hoax. The father, Richard Heene pleaded guilty on November 13, 2009, to the charge of attempting to influence a public servant and last December 23 2009 he was sentenced to 90 days jail and the mother Mayumi Heene to 20 days weekend jail.

With the sentenced and jail terms imposed to the guilty parents, obviously they will be spending christmas behind bars.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has declared martial Law in Maguindanao as tension and public safety has deteriorated. The Proclamation of 1959 also suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the province. It was announced also that the said declaration of Martial Law in Maguindanao won’t exceed 60 days.

Oprah Winfrey is calling it quits after more than 20 years of doing her daytime talk show. According to sources, Oprah told her staff yesterday afternoon in a company meeting. Also yesterday, Tim Bennett, president of Oprah’s Harpo Productions, announced that she will leave “Oprah” in September 2011. Oprah will confirm the news on her show today. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” will not be moving to the Oprah Winfrey Network as was rumored. Here’s Tim Bennett’s statement that he sent to stations across the country that carry Oprah’s show:

—”Dear Friends:
Over the past several weeks, my team and I have had conversations with many of you to help address your questions about the future of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Of course, the one question we couldn’t answer was the one that only Oprah could. And tomorrow, she will do just that.

But before she speaks to her loyal viewers, we wanted to share her decision first with you — our valued partners for more than two decades.
Oprah will announce live on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that she has decided to end what is arguably one of the most popular, influential and enduring programs in television history. The sun will set on the “Oprah” show as its 25th season draws to a close on September 9, 2011.

We welcome you to share this news this evening with your colleagues and viewers. As we all know, Oprah’s personal comments about this on tomorrow’s live show will mark an historic television moment that we will all be talking about for years to come.

We want to thank you for the partnership and friendship we have shared over the years. Your invaluable support has helped us to create the phenomenon of the “Oprah Show” that we’ve all been so proud to be a part of for the last 24 years. My staff and I will be calling all of you directly tonight and tomorrow. We look forward to speaking with you.
And, if you think the last quarter century has been something, then “don’t touch that dial” as together we plan to make history in the next 20 months … and beyond.

Yours sincerely,
Tim Bennett
President, Harpo, Inc.”

Vic Sotto and Christine Reyes stars in Ang Misis Kong Aswang which will be a FilmFest entry of Octo Arts and MZet Films to this year Metro Manila Filmfest Festival.

Dr. Rey B. Aquino, Philhealth President and CEO announced that Philhealth members that was admitted in level 3 and 4 hospital due to leptospirosis may avail themselves with allowances for hospital room and board fees upto P800.000 per day and allowances for drugs and medicines of up to P28,000 per single confinement. Visit Philhealth office for more details about this matter.

A new storm named Typhoon Pepeng is already coming into the area of responsibility of the Philippines. The typhoon is about 700+ kilometers away and should be expected to reach Metro Manila in 48 to 72 hours from today.

Here’s a video of our area here in Landayan, San Pedro, Laguna — still heavily affected by Typhoon Ondoy. The flood is still rising and in some areas, could reach beyond the waistline.

The video was taken yesterday afternoon (September 28, 3PM) as people from subdivisions in the inner residential areas are busy evacuating their homes and moving to centers. There are no rescue teams here, no relief operations and people are on their own. Others say the flood could last for at least 2 weeks to 1 month.

Some people are making a lot of money by offering bancas and small raft boats which they charge Php100 per trip. They offer this to local residents who go back to their homes to get more stuff like cooking wares, beddings, clothes and other belongings. That’s like highway robbery! I think bayanihan is dead in the Philippines. Fellow Filipinos never miss an opportunity to make money in times of crisis.

My neighbors are already looking for temporary house or apartments for rent for 3 months but landlords are already increasing the monthly rent in the area to almost double the normal prices. GMA News finally came last night and witnissed the plight of the people in Landayan and reported it on TV. Relief goods were also given but they only brought very few stuff.

The Metro Manila Flood that hit the capital of the Philippines by Typhoon Ondoy left hundreds of thousands of people affected and hundreds killed.

Here’s a screenshot of the map photo of the areas affected (powered by Google Maps):

View Ondoy situation map for Metro Manila in a larger map

Photos of the Manila Flood are all over Flickr. See slideshow of flooding photos below:

Thousand and thousands of people took pictures of the aftermath and uploaded them on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.