Team DailyPedia
Passing the Philippine Bar Examination is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome for a career in law. Many fail to make the cut every year and have to retake the exam again. So it was no small feat that Commission on Audit (COA) security guard Roy Lawagan was able to pass the 2015 bar exams.
The Supreme Court released the results of the 2015 bar examinations on May 3, 2016 (Tuesday). After he became one of the 1,731 new lawyers who passed, Lawagan still reported for work at the COA office in La Trinidad, Benguet province the next day.
Lawagan considers passing the bar exam as a gift for his 27th birthday on May 11, 2016. He will be staying at his security job until May 15, after which he’ll be taking up a cousin’s offer to work in a law firm in Manila to gain more experience.
Originally from Sagada in the Mountain Province, Lawagan completed his criminology degree at the University of Baguio and finished Law at Saint Loius University. He is the fourth child out of the nine siblings and shared that some of his sisters graduated with degrees in political science but didn’t pursue law. He is the first one to make his father’s dreams come true. “Being a lawyer was my father’s dream,” Lawagan shared.
He attended night classes while working as a security guard. He told Inquirer it was tiring since his wife was pregnant with their daughter at the time.
This was not the first time that Lawagan took the bar exam. He didn’t pass the 2014 bar examination even after enrolling in a review center. He decided to review on his own for the 2015 exams.
