MANILA, Philippines — Nielson Pangan, this year’s bar topnotcher, describes himself as “just an average student” who prayed a lot.
The 27-year old law graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law topped the 2013 Bar Exams, besting 1,174 other examinees who passed the exams with a grade of 85.80 percent.
When his friends started calling him up to congratulate him, Pangan said he thought it was just a joke at first.
But there were more calls that came, and that was when he realized that he really topped the bar.
“Awa at tulong ito ng Ama,” said Pangan who held devotional prayers to God while he earnestly reviewed for the bar exams.
Pangan said he was “really surprised” when friends called him up to tell him that he was the 2013 bar topnotcher.
“I was just an average student,” he said. “I was not even in the top 20.”
Pangan said he was somewhere around the middle of the class of 200, where 171 of them passed the bar.
But he devoted more hours – at least 10 hours a day – reviewing for the bar. And he faithfully fulfilled his duties as an organist or “organista” (someone who plays the organ in the choir hymn singing) in Iglesia Ni Cristo worship services in his locale.
Pangan describes himself as the first lawyer in a family of engineers.
His father is an engineering professor at the New Era University (NEU). His two brothers are also engineers.
Before studying law at UP, Pangan finished legal management at NEU, graduating magna cum laude in 2008.
Pangan now has a teaching load at the NEU, and works for a legal firm in Makati — Migallos and Luna law offices — where he is an associate.
Pangan said he really wanted to become a lawyer from the start, even though most of his family members were engineers.
He said he was influenced by friends and by “TV shows”. The idea that “lawyers fought for what was right” appealed to him.
Even with a hectic schedule, he did not forget to set aside time to pray, he said, particularly during the review for the bar exams.
“When I didn’t know the answer, I prayed,” he said. He also did not forget his church duties or obligations.
During the exams, he found criminal law to be the most difficult. He said after the exams, he was thinking of his answers – that maybe he could have done better.
He enjoys “litigation” the most, and sees himself doing best during a court trial and in arguing pleadings in a court case. He said he prefers corporate law practice.
Pangan also credits UP’s training for law students for his accomplishment. He and four other UP law graduates landed in the top 10 of the 2013 bar exams.
It was way back in 2005 that UP topped the bar with UP law graduate Joan de Venecia, a niece of former Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia, topping that year’s exams.
But from 2010 to 2012, Ateneo de Manila University consistently topped the bar. UP even failed to make it to the top 10 in the year 2011.
UP broke that streak with Pangan topping the latest bar exams, and four other UP graduates making it to the prestigious top 10.
Mark Xavier Oyales, also of UP, tied with Dianne Louise Wilwayco of Ateneo Law School at no. 2 with a grade of 85.45%.
The other UP graduates who made it to the top 10 are Eden Catherine Mopia (4th place, 85.05%); Michael Tiu Jr., (8th place, 83.70%); and Cyril Arnesto (10th place, 83.60%).
The Supreme Court’s Public Information Office (PIO) said that this year’s passing rate was 22.18 percent, which was higher than last year’s passing rate of 17.76 percent that was considered a 12-year low.
A total of 5,293 examinees hurdled the four Sundays of the exams, from the original 5,593 who were admitted to take them in October last year. According to the SC, 5,641 law graduates applied for the 2013 Bar exams.
According to the bar exam chair, Associate Justice Arturo Brion, the exams had a high level of difficulty that prompted the high court to lower the passing grade to 73 percent this year.
But Pangan, even after topping the 2013 bar exams which is considered one of the most difficult even by his mentors, remained humble. Aside from studying and really reviewing hard, as what other examinees had done, he said it was really God’s help that got him through.
Asked what his secret was, he simply said, “Prayers. Lots of prayers.” (Eagle News Service)
