University of Baguio graduate becomes Philippines’ first blind person to pass the Bar

A law graduate from the University of Baguio became the first visually impaired student to pass the Philippine Bar exams.

Anthony Mark Emocling of Baguio City was one of the 3,992 out of 9,183 examinees who passed the 2022 Bar Examinations.

Emocling is the son of a taxi driver and a cum laude graduate of Political Science, also from the University of Baguio.

“Congratulations ANTHONY MARK DULAWAN EMOCLING! My blind student at the University of Baguio, School of Law (UBSOL) who against all the odds and despite being blind is now a Lawyer,” Narvacan, Ilocos Sur mayor Pablito Sanidad wrote, who was the university’s former law school dean.

Although Emocling is the first blind individual to have passed the bar, he is not the first to take it. In 2014, Christopher Yumang, also from the University of Baguio, took the examination in front of a Supreme Court examiner.

Emocling also first took the bar in 2017 and finally passed on his fourth try.

The 2022 Bar Examinations posted a passing rate of 43.47 percent.