Perseverance pays off: Widower, 59, passes bar 35 years after law school
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DUMAGUETE CITY – Better late than never.
The local civil registrar (LCR) of Maria, Siquijor has passed the 2024 bar examinations on his fourth try after 35 years.
Jay Anoos Tayros, 59, said becoming a lawyer has been his dream since he was in fifth grade.
His fascination for the legal profession started when his family had a civil case with another party who tried to lay claim over their rice field.
They eventually won back their farm.
Article continues after this advertisement“(It was then when) I decided to become a lawyer,” he told the Inquirer.
Article continues after this advertisementBut Tayros’ path to becoming a lawyer took some time.
After high school, he took his pre-law at Foundation University and law proper at Silliman University.
He graduated in 1989 and immediately took the bar exams that year but did not make it.
Tayros wanted to retake the bar in 1990 but backed out for personal reasons.
In 2000, he again took the bar exams but still failed.
Despite his unsuccessful attempts at hurdling the bar, Tayros was hired by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as a paralegal which enabled him to handle cases on behalf of tenants for 10 years.
He was also a notary public in the municipality for 12 years.
His presiding judge at the DAR Adjudication Board, Vivian Maquiling, was among those who encouraged him to retake the bar.
For someone from the Cebuano-speaking provinces, going to Manila to take the bar can be very stressful.
“You have to adjust to Tagalog. Travel is far from Siquijor and you are away from your family,” he said.
Tayros later became the LCR of his hometown.
“In my job at the LCR, we make petitions to file correction of entries in birth certificates, so that is also part of the legal practice. That also encouraged me to continue to become a lawyer,” he said.
After his wife’s death in 2012, Tayros became a solo parent and took out loans to finance his two sons’ education.
His sons subsequently passed the accountancy and criminology examinations respectively and are now working abroad.
“I’m all alone at home now so when I heard of the innovations of the Supreme Court in computerizing and decentralizing the examinations, I thought of giving the bar one last try,” he said.
Tayros thought using a computer to answer the bar questions would give him an edge because the examiners would not have to read his bad penmanship which turns worse when under time pressure.
His two sons encouraged him on his plan and paid for his bar review at the Chan Robles Review Center in October 2022.
He took his refresher course at the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR) in Cebu City in 2023 and enrolled in the same school’s pre-bar review in May 2024.
To his delight, he learned that the classes were conducted online which did not anymore require him to travel from Siquijor to Cebu.
But reviewing online also had its challenges.
“I felt sentimental. Looking at my fellow reviewees on the computer monitor, I didn’t know everyone and I had no one to ask if I had questions,” Tayros said.
He finally took the bar on Sept. 8, 11 and 15 at the USJR where he recalled having a challenging time answering the questions for Remedial Law.
“That was the killer subject,” he said, noting that he also had a difficult time with the same subject in his previous bar attempts.
Tayros spent the following weeks waiting and praying. He also buried himself in work to keep him occupied.
When Dec. 13 finally came, Tayros kept checking his computer for the bar results.
At 1:30 p.m., the Supreme Court released the results and Tayros saw his name among the passers.
“I immediately bent my knees and shouted, ‘Thank you, Lord, for answering my prayers! I was excited and was overwhelmed by happiness,” he said.
Reflecting on his experience, Tayros said age is not a hindrance in becoming a lawyer.
He advised those who unsuccessfully took the bar in the past to retake the exams now.
“It is easier to review now because there is a syllabus. You just have to select what are the probable subjects and read up on the latest jurisprudence. There’s also the internet, where you can be updated on the latest leading cases,” he said.
Tayros said if one decides to stop taking the bar because he or she did not succeed in the previous attempts, they have failed.
“If you don’t give up, that does not yet mean failure. You have a chance of becoming a lawyer,” he said.
Court of Appeals Associate Justice Pamela Ann Maxino, who was Tayros’ classmate, expressed elation over her “cool, shy and quiet” classmate’s achievement.
Former Labor Attache Ponciano Ligutom, another classmate and neighbor of Tayros, described him as a friendly person who belongs to an educated and respected clan of Maria, Siquijor.
Ligutom also lauded the new lawyer for prioritizing the education of his children over his love life after his wife passed away.
Tayros hoped that his story would also encourage his friends who had unsuccessful attempts at taking the bar to give it one more try.
As the town’s newest lawyer, Tayros will not anymore get a salary increase as he is already a department head.
But he said he intends to ask the permission of his local chief executive to allow him, as a government employee, to practice his profession.
“I can notarize the documents of those seeking the assistance of my office pro-bono,” he said.
