By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
In the wake of the release of the list of last year’s successful bar examinees which included three Kalinga State University (KSU) graduates, the most from any school for Kalinga’s last batch of lawyers, I decided to find out the details of how the newest college of law in the region came to be.
KSU President Eduardo Bagtang traces the origins of the KSU College of Law to a conversation during a Rotary Club meeting sometime in 2001 where the late RTC Judge Milnar Lammawin broached the possibility of the then Kalinga-Apayao State College (KASC) establishing a law school on the ground that many Kalinga youth are inclined towards the law profession and pursue the dream in schools in Baguio, Manila and Tuguegarao. The judge had said that there would be no problem about the faculty because there are a good number of lawyers in the government and private sectors in the province.
Bagtang recalls that they acted on the idea right away by floating a questionnaire basically asking students that were they to pursue law, would they be willing to enrol in the proposed college. He said that 60 percent of the respondents said they would enrol and 40 percent expressed hesitation.
Bagtang said that when he assumed as president of the college in 2006, the school started a feasibility study on the possible course offering and likewise inventoried available lawyers who have time to teach. Some of the lawyers gave their commitment.
In 2010, the school finally applied with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for authority to offer law. The CHED visited the school several times and also enumerated the requirements including the availability of lawyers to teach and the qualifications of the dean. They submitted the profiles of the prospective instructors namely Judges Marcelino Wacas and Nympha Abbacan, Public Attorney Office Chief Francis Calsiyao, Attorneys Randy Bulwayan, Michael Pangda, Cornelius Dannang and Rainier Sarol and also that of Atty. Eduardo Buliyat as the candidate dean. They also submitted their proposed curriculum. After scrutinizing the documents with the help of a technical panel composed of deans of law schools in Baguio, the CHED submitted a favorable recommendation to the CHED national office.
The Legal Education Board (LEB) under the CHED then formed a technical committee to study the proposal. The committee was chaired by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Bernardo Pardo and some deans of colleges of law in Metro Manila.
The technical panel next scheduled a defense at the University of the Philippines-Diliman sometime in 2010. Bagtang, Vice President for Academics and Student Development Carmelita Ayang-ang and Board of Regents member Samson Ayang-ang represented the school. During the two-hour defense, they had to present the qualifications of the prospective instructors and the dean. Regarding the latter, they explained that Atty. Buliyat was a former instructor of the University of the Cordilleras, University of Baguio and the Philippine Military Academy and has units in Masters of Education and had more than 10-year law practice. They argued that although the CHED requires a law college dean to have a masters degree, the experiences of Buliyat more than makes up for the deficiency.
When asked where the students will come from, the KASC representatives named local colleges aside from Kalinga law students studying in other places. They also informed the panel that based on their surveys, many professionals have signified their intention to enrol in the college. They said that if the college were to open then, they guaranteed at least 20 students.
Before the opening of the first semester of SY 2011-2012, the LEB through the CHED released a conditional permit to the college to offer Bachelor of Laws. Bagtang said that the ultimate condition was that if none of its products pass the bar in three consecutive years, the permit will be withdrawn.
The KSU Law opened its doors in 2011 and as they say, the rest is history.**
