MANILA, Philippines – Failure can feel like an ending when years of effort collapse into a single result, but for one University of Santo Tomas (UST) graduate, it became the beginning of a comeback that would take 12 years to complete.
Once a Bar examinee who did not make the cut on his first try, Spinel Albert Allauigan Declaro stepped away from the examination halls with an unfinished dream he chose not to abandon.
For more than a decade, Declaro lived with the quiet weight of a goal deferred, balancing life, responsibility, and the lingering question of whether he would ever return.
In 2025, that long silence ended when he sat for the Bar once more and delivered a result few could have imagined.
Declaro emerged as the second-highest placer nationwide, securing an exceptional score of 92.46 percent in one of the country’s most demanding licensure examinations.
His remarkable journey was revealed by Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, chairperson of the 2025 Bar Examinations and a fellow UST law graduate.
Lazaro-Javier shared that Declaro had once been her student, along with his wife, during his years at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law.
She recalled meeting him years later and personally urging him to take the Bar again, assuring him of a fair and just examination process.
“I almost pleaded with him to try again and I assured him that it would be a just Bar,” she said, still expressing amazement at how that encouragement led to a Top 2 finish.
Declaro’s success resonated deeply because it was earned not through momentum, but through patience, humility, and the courage to return after failure.
Hailing from the town of Iguig in Cagayan, he instantly became a symbol of pride for his province and inspiration for aspiring lawyers nationwide.
His achievement placed him among the 5,594 passers out of 11,425 examinees who took the 2025 Bar Examinations across the country.
The results produced a national passing rate of 48.98 percent, a significant increase from the 37.84 percent recorded in the previous year.
University of the Philippines graduate Jhenroniel Rhey Timola Sanchez topped the examination with a 92.70 percent rating.
Declaro’s story stands as proof that failure may pause a dream for years, but it does not define its ending.
— The Summit Express