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Egay Uy .

THE bar examinations which started on Sunday, with three more coming, are worth reminiscing. I took the bar exams way back in 1985 when I was two years into married life. My young and beautiful wife, Juliet, encouraged me to take up law instead of engineering as a second course, or MBA, after my college graduation in 1980.

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I always wanted to become an engineer when I was about to graduate from XU high school in 1970 because I thought I had a knack in numbers.  Back then, the better engineering schools were in Cebu City.  However, fate did not allow me to pursue that dream.

I vividly recall one classmate, Kelly Nery who said he wanted to become a lawyer.  Instead, he became an engineer and I became a lawyer.  He studied engineering along with some our classmates in Cebu and I studied law, in later years, at XU College of Law under the soft-spoken dean Atty. Florentino Dumlao Jr. (may his soul rest in peace).

Because I was unable to go to Cebu, I opted to take up accountancy at Xavier. However, when I reached my second year in the College of Commerce, I shifted to another course that did not require any board examination – BS Economics under the BSBA department. I was worried I would not be able to take the board exam because of financial concerns if I pursued accountancy.

While in my second year of college work, I started working as the secretary of the engineering department of the local electric utility.  Since I already had a job, I quit school for several semesters.  However, my peer group then at the office were mostly licensed engineers so I thought I had to pursue a college degree.

After I finished my undergraduate studies in 1980 – that’s ten years since high school graduation – the decision to take up law was firmed up with the help of Juliet.  Luckily, and thanks to the chairman of the human resource development committee of Cepalco at that time, Binong Privaldos, I was granted a company scholarship on the condition that I continued working during regular working hours. I was told later that Binong broke the tie hence I got the scholarship.

I can make this story long but it will bore you. I took the bar exams in 1985 right after graduating from law school.  The Cepalco scholarship also covered the bar exams but I had to render half-day duty at the Cepalco headquarters in Pasig. The experience was doubly daunting because it was my first time to set foot in Manila.

Well, all those are under the bridge now.  The sad part of it was that my father, Nene Uy, passed away a month before the bar exams were released with my name in it.

Worth reminiscing.  And good luck to the bar examinees 2018.

 

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He is the chairman of the city’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, chairman of the city’s Joint Inspection Team, and co-chairman of the City Price Coordinating Council.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)

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