A daughter of lawyers from Baguio City and Mountain Province is among the 3,812 examinees who successfully hurdled and landed on the top 20 passers in the 2023 Bar exams held in September.
Based on results released by the Supreme Court on Dec. 5, Rockylle Dominque Laureta Balisong placed 18th in the Bar exams with a rating of 87.7375 percent.
She finished Law at San Beda University and is a member of its class of 2023.
Balisong, who traces her roots to Mountain Province took up her early education in Baguio City at the Saint Louis University Laboratory Elementary School in 2010 and at the SLU Laboratory High School in 2014.
She took up her undergraduate studies at University of Sto. Tomas and graduated in 2018.
She is the daughter of lawyer and former city councilor Rocky Thomas Balisong and lawyer Luz Laureta of the City Legal Office.
The Bar, one of the most grueling exams in the country, was topped by Ephraim P. Bie, from UST with a rating of 89.1625 percent.
This year’s Bar exam passing rate is 36.77 or 3,812 passing out of the total of 10,287 examinees.
In terms of performance per school, SLU secured the second spot among 65 Law schools for first time examinees with 11 to 50 Bar examinees, retaining its ranking in the November 2022 Bar exams.
Of the 32 SLU School of Law graduates who took the Bar for the first time, 39 passed or a 92.86 percent passing rate which is higher than the national passing rate of 36.77 percent.
SLU also ranked fourth for all candidates with a rating of 61.04 percent with 51 to 100 candidates or 47 out of 77 examinees who passed the exam.
The Cordillera Career Development College administration also announced that 13 of its examinees have passed the Bar, while University of Baguio has 10 successful examinees.
The University of the Cordilleras, which had produced six topnotchers with two first places, also congratulated its new lawyers. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
