1949 - Passing the Bar

Story of My Life
by Jose B. Sibayan
12/7/1991

This story is written to give glory to God who has a plan for everyone. I was born on May 8, 1918 and at my present age as I write this story on December 7, 1991, my experiences and observations conclusively prove the truth about God’s plan for everyone. (Today is the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.)

It was during my lunch session with Atty. Dallas Albritton in his office with Atty. Robert Ruelo when in the course of conversation, Dallas said: “Brother, you should write a story of your life.” He made this suggestion after I told them how I passed the Philippine Bar which I took in 1949.

I told them that when I was preparing to take the bar, my boss, Colonel Ambrosio Salud, called me and said: “I know that you reviewing for the bar. Do you know that I took the bar seven times and that I only passed it on my seventh attempt? I passed it during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines when all of us passed. Now I don’t want you to suffer the same agony, shame, and frustration I had being called a ‘bar flunker’. All that I can do to help you is this: get somebody to take your job so that instead of coming to the office you can go elsewhere to review. The reason I flunked then was because I was a working student like you and I had no chance to review. Try to look for another officer who can do your job as soon as possible and let him see me.” I said: “Yes, Sir!” saluted him smartly and returned to my desk.

At that time I was the Administrative Officer, Finance Officer and Supply Officer of the Quartermaster Service Group, Philippine Constabulary (now called National Police Command). We handled the procurement and distribution of supplies for all Constabulary units throughout the Philippines. We had various distribution points in different areas under an officer with the ranks of Captain.

Not long after Colonel Salud told me to look for an officer to handle my job, Captain Jose Del Rosario, our Supply Officer in Canlubang, Laguna came in and addressed me in our Ilocano dialect: “Joe, okinnam, tolongan nak,” with a wide grin on his scar-face. He said: “Joe, you s-b, help me.” But said jokingly with a smile, this is an intimate way to address a friend. I answered: “You are a captain and I am only a first lieutenant, how can I help you?”

He approached me closer and whispered: “You are very close to our boss and I know that one word from you will make him act.” I then asked him: “Do you want to take my job?” He backed away and said, “I did not come here to take your job! But you know Joe, on my way back to Canlubang from Manila, I was ambushed by Huks (or Communists) and almost got killed. I have a big family here in Manila and I want to build a house near the Max Fried Chicken area in Quezon City. Please, Joe, help me.”

I told him what Colonel Salud just advised me so that I can prepare myself for the bar, and he agreed to take my job. We approached Colonel, whose table was nearby and I said: “sir, here is Captain Del Rosario who can take my place.” He looked up very much surprised. Addressing Capt. Del Rosario, he asked: “Prove to me that you can do Joe’s job!” He answered: “Sir, before I got commissioned as a Reserve officer, I was a Superintendent of a High School. If Joe can push a pen, I can also do that.”

Colonel Salud said: “Alright, take this note to Colonel Papa (G-1) and come back with your orders.”

That same day, Capt. Del Rosario took over my job and the following day I went to the Camp Crame Chapel on top of the hill to review. As I knelt before the altar I said: “Lord, make me a lawyer so that I can help the poor, the needy, the oppressed and those who can not afford to pay a lawyer.”

I have barely opened my book when Captain Jose Gozo, our Chaplain, came in. He asked: “Joe, what are you doing here?” I said, “I am reviewing to take the bar, Father, and this is the only place I can find to read my books.” He said: “Come, follow me.” as he walked inside his office behind the altar.

“The adjacent room is my library, complete with bed, toilet and bath.” And he added, “Here, take this key so that you can pass through the back door any time you come her.” I was very happy and went inside the room immediately. The following year he was promoted to Major and I was also promoted to Captain.

The bar exam is taken every Sunday for four consecutive Sundays. On the first Sunday, before I woke up, I dreamt of having taken the exam. I even recalled a question that I was not able to answer. That was about adoption. Before leaving to go to the Normal School where the exams were being held, I first read the book on Civil Procedure which contained the subject of adoption.
When the exam notebook was given to us and after praying, I went over the questions. In the middle of the pages were two questions: 1. Where do you find the law on adoption? 2. What are the steps for adoption? I almost jumped out of my seat with joy! After answering those questions, all the rest of the questions seemed very easy to answer. Nothing is impossible with God!

Civil procedure was scheduled for the last week. My Civil Law was 84%.

On the second week of my review, I rode with Col. Salud and I asked him to drop me on the nearest place to my school in Arellano Law College along his way. When we reached the corner of Sta. Mesa and Loreto streets it was raining very hard and so I asked him to drop me where it was not raining along his way to Taft Avenue.

The rain stopped when we reached the Francisco Law College, a newly opened law school on Taft Avenue. I went inside and attended the review there. They were reviewing for the coming exam on Commercial Law. At that time anybody can enter any review class.

To my great surprise the questions on Commercial Law given to us the following Sunday were the same questions being reviewed in the Francisco Law College then. I easily answered them.

To attract law students for enrollment, every law school tries it’s best to have a high rate of candidates who can pass the bar. It was then of common knowledge that often times bar examination questions leaked out. Judge Francisco, owner of the Francisco Law College, was a member of the Supreme Court. Could it be that my having attended the law review in that school was a mere accident? Why did the rain stop just near that place then? It is a good three miles away from the Arellano Law College!

I did not tell Father Gozo about this incident because when I told him about my having dreamt of the exams before I woke up, he said: “I’ll believe that Joe when you pass the exams.” But I kept reviewing inside his chapel every day.

There was a flu epidemic when I was taking the bar exam. It was called “Asian Flu.” All our children, including my wife, were sick. The whole night of Saturday I was up giving them medicine and water, and more water because of their high fever. I had no sleep.

The following morning I was feeling as though I was floating on air and my head was empty. I told my wife that I will not leave them for the exams. She suggested and asked me and begged me to take them to her sister’s apartment so that I can go and take the exams.

I hired a cretella (a horse-drawn carriage) and brought her and our children: Tony, Betty, Bing and Jojo to Aning’s place in Avenida Rizal, which was quite a distance from Pandacan, Manila.
When I reached the Normal School, I barely had time t make a short review. I read only about ten articles of the three hundred articles of the Revised Penal Code. I was not feeling well. I just answered the questions as briefly as I could.

On my way back home, I rode in the jeepney (a small passenger car) with our best bet, Edon Brion, who was my close friend. We compared notes on our answers. I thought I did not do very well because the way he answered the questions was different from my answers. Being our valedictorian, I believed in him.

When the bar results were known, he could have been our bar top-notcher, had he gotten my grade of 94% in Criminal Law. All his grades were above 95% except in Criminal Law, which was below 95%. He answered the questions according to the decided cases, while I answered them based on the principles or elements of law.

The fourth Sunday covered political law subjects. I saw my right-side candidate reviewing very intensely a ¼ piece of paper. When we were told to put down everything from our table and get our exam notebook, I reached for the piece of paper when he stood up and read what he was reviewing. Then I went to get my notebook. He did not see me get the piece of paper.

When I went over the examination questions, I was greeted with these two questions: 1. How many members are there in the Presidential Cabinet? 2. Name them and their respective positions.

The piece of paper contained the names and positions of the thirteen members of the Cabinet! My joy was indescribable. All the rest of the questions that we took during that day were not very hard to answer. At that time there were twelve members of the cabinet, but President Magsaysay added one special member, Mrs. Pacita Madrigal Warns, as Head of the Associated Charities.

It took one year for the bar results to be released. One of the candidates who took the exam was the son of President Quirino, Tomas Quirino. When I went to get my grades from the Supreme Court, I saw that his grade was 64% in the 1949 Bar Examinations. The results were released when the new president of the Philippines took over in 1950. Another candidate was the son of the late Pres. Manuel Rojas, Jerry Rojas, whose grade was 75%. He later on became Speaker of the House of Representatives.

My general average was 84.1%. I got 89% in Political Law and 83% in Mercantile (Commercial) Law. My lowest grade was 78% in International Law. I was exempted from taking the final exam in this subject because of my previous exams and so I did not mind reviewing very well in this subject during the bar exams. My teacher with whom all of us fell in love was Mrs. Palma, who later became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. She was a very good combination of BEAUTY with BRAINS! Until now I can still imagine her lovely smiling face. She has light complexion. We call light-complexioned persons in the Philippines “mestiza” a hybrid.

My passing the bar was the culmination of sacrifices and hard work as a working student on my part and full hearted cooperation and encouragement by my wife, Pat. It was one of the greatest events of our lives! Praise the Lord.

I was coming from inspection of the various guard posts of the PC as Field Officer of the Day when I saw the HUGE headline of the newspaper being peddled by newsboys in the corner of EDSA and Sta. Mesa St. (now Sen. Rodriguez Blvd.) It flashed: BAR RESULTS. It contained my name and I turned around to show It to Pat instead of proceeding to the HPC in Camp Crame. We lived in Pandacan, Manila.

Our rejoicing roused our children (and maybe our neighbors) from sleep for it was around six o’clock in the morning. I bought other newspaper copies and went directly to the Camp Crame Chapel. After giving my thanks and praises to God, I proceeded to the Office of the Quartermaster Service Group in the PC Headquarters building. It was already around 8:30 am and so all civilian employees, EM and officers were already at work. What greeted me at the entrance to our office were already at work. What greeted me at the entrance to our office was a BIG welcome sign: CONGRATULATIONS ATTORNEY SIBAYAN! Upon seeing me, all my co-employees, headed by Col. Salud, came to congratulate me. Other officers from adjoining offices also came to greet me including my friends in the Camp. But the first one whom I went to see after my wife to give thanks was Father Gozo who said: “Now I believe your dream, Joe.” We prayed together.

During our noon break my co-officers invited me to the Max Fried Chicken Restaurant where they gave me a “blow-out.” The next group to give me a “blow-out” was our enlisted men who were under me as their Commanding Officer of the QMSG (Quartermaster Service Group) Company.

Col. Salud invited all members of the QMSG to a GRAND blow-out in his newly built mansion the following weekend. There we had a picture taking and I was requested to deliver a speech. I mounted the stairway going to the second floor and addressed the guests. My speech was brief. I merely gave thanks to God, to my wife, to Col. Salud, to Major Gozo and to everybody, including Capt. Del Rosario, who helped me pass the bar.

Our civilian employees, including those in our QMSG Warehouse in the Planas Compound, not far from Camp Crame, also gave me a big blow-out as their Administrative Officer and Finance Officer, before that of Col. Salud.

The following weekend, my rich brother-in-law, Mr. Agapito Raagas (cousin Loling’s husband), gave me a blow-out in his house in Kamining, Quezon City where prominent people were present. It was in that house where Pat and I lived when I was not yet an officer and our room was inside a dug-out during the war under the house.

Aside from the publicity in the newspapers, I was featured in the “KHAKI AND RED” a Constabulary magazine that was widely read by all officers and men of the Philippine Constabulary. It contained my picture in uniform as Captain and claimed that I was a former enlisted man that rose from the ranks. I got letters of congratulations from all sources.

Pat and I have a return BLOW-OUT at home. My soldiers had to set up a big tent in front of our house to accommodate our guests that included the 100-man PC Band that paraded around town with my placard, headed by Captain Campana, a good friend of mine. We had a picture taken by a professional photographer. IT WAS OUR BIG DAY! The members of the Band were not included in the picture because the photographer arrived late.

Other banquets were held following my passing the bar. One was held by the Arellano College of Law and the other one was held by our Congressman Quentin Paredes, whose son Antonio also passed, with other candidates from the province of Abra. That was my first time to come face to face with our very famous Congressman, who later built a Paredes University in Manila. We had a personal chat about another bar candidate from Abra whom he did not invite, saying: “That fellow is a snake.” (May his soul rest in peace.) Don Quentin was a prominent Philippine lawyer.
Not long after the bar results were published a long lost cousin of mine, Manang Feling (Mrs. Felisa Calvo) made a surprise visit in my office with her daughter Accountant, Baby. They traced my whereabouts through the newspaper publications. It was from her how I learned some information about my other relatives on my late father’s side. Then we had a family reunion and I invited them to my blow-out at home.

I got back to my job in the QMSG and in addition to my being and Adm. O, Fin. O, Supply O, and C.O., GMSG Co., I was designated as Law-member of the HPC General Courtmartial headed by Colonel Delarmente. How I performed all these jobs, only God knows. Capt. Del Rosario, being only on TDY (temporary duty) in our office was given another job as Supply Officer closer to Manila.

When I called up Col. Fred Ruiz-Castro, who was then my professor in Criminal Law to thank him for my passing the bar, he asked if I wanted to join him in his office as a Judge Advocate Officer. He was then the Chief JAGO, Armed Forces of the Philippines. I politely declined his offer out of my gratitude to Col. Salud.

Had I become a JAGO Officer instead of being later on integrated into the Regular Force from the rank of Captain, Reserve, to 1st Lieutenant, Regular, I could have avoided the unpleasant sufferings and sacrifices of reduction in rank and being sent out as an Infantry officer to fight the Huks (Communists) in Mt. Pinatubo and in central Luzon when my wife was carrying our sixth child, Bobby, until he was born. But God has a plan for everyone as I could see it now. I did not think about that. I just went with the Filipino saying of “bahala na” or “come what may” attitude.
Col. Salud tried to convince me to become a Mason. He held a high degree in Masonry, up to the 6th degree. I said I’ll think it over. When I consulted Father Gozo about this matter he said: “Joe, don’t! Do you know that later on as you go up in their ranks they will require you to step on the Cross in order to go up higher?” With that advice I disappointed my boss. But I believe that as I see this now, I was being guided by the Holy Spirit.

Being the only enlisted man who rose from the ranks and at the same time a practicing lawyer in Camp Crame and nearby Camp Murphy (now Ft. Aguinaldo), I was asked as a Guest Speaker in the AFSEM (Armed Forces School for Enlisted Men) in Camp Murphy. There I ended my speech with the famous saying: “Be still sad heart and cease repining. Carry on, still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait. Some days must be dark and dreary!”

Later on I got several requests from soldiers to defend them in the civil courts or in court-martials including cases involving their families. I had to bring them and their witnesses to court in my car and during court recess I take them to a nearby eatery spending my own money. I was once like them and I know how they live. Besides, I was fulfilling my promise to God.