By Calvin Cordova
CEBU CITY – Having four graduates in the top 10 of the 2018 Bar exam didn’t surprise the faculty of the University of San Carlos (USC) College of Law.
(L-R) Top 10, 2, 3 and 9 Alan Joel Pita, Marcey Natu-El, Mark Badayos and Jebb Lynus Cane pose in the Law office of the University of San Carlos as they celebrate after they pass the 2018 bar exams in the Top 10. (JUAN CARLO DE VELA / MANILA BULLETIN)
In fact, Law Dean Joan Largo said the results were somewhat expected.
“In all honesty and modesty aside, we really thought of them making it to the top 10. In fact we were claiming already number three for Mark, number one or two for Alen, Marcley and Cane. These four were our bets,” Largo said.
He was referring to Marcley Augustus Natu-el, a son of a retired police general, who placed second with a score of 87.53 percent, Mark Lawrence Badayos who ranked third with 85.84 percent, Jebb Lynus Cane who placed ninth with 84.80 percent, and Alen Joel Pita who placed 10th with 84.69.
USC has been consistently producing bar topnotchers.
In 2016, Karen Mae Calam topped the bar exams with a 89.05 percent rating. Two other USC graduates made it to the top in that year.
In 2017, five USC graduates landed in the top 20 of the Bar exams, three of them making the top 10.
Largo attributed the school’s success to its “four secrets.” He named them as “hard work, faith in God, faith in oneself, faith in USC’s training.”
Largo credited the law school faculty for another exceptional showing of their graduates.
“It says so much about the dedication of the faculty. It can be said without fear of contradiction that the faculty members of USC are among the best,” he said.
“The students in one batch change year after year. They’re variables but the constant in USC is the faculty and that’s the reason why USC year after year after produces a lot of topnotchers in bar exams,” Badayos said.
It was a double celebration for the 26-year-old Badayos because her older sister Maria Lourdes also passed the Bar.
“When I knew that I landed in the top 10, I could not celebrate yet. I waited for the complete results because I wouldn’t know what to I feel that passed but my sister didn’t. So, after about 20 minutes of waiting, I learned that my sister also passed and I was so overjoyed,” he said.
Maria Lourdes is a product of another Cebu City-based school—the University of San Jose-Recoletos College of Law.