The Topnotcher

In 1998, when the University of Cordilleras (then known as Baguio Colleges Foundation) produced its first bar topnotcher with Janet Abuel, some of the law students printed T-shirts with messages like “We’re a little known school but we’re Number 1” or “University of What?”
Nine years later, UC produced its second Bar topnotcher but the school is now more prepared.
They fetched Noel Neil Malimban with a Cordillera dance troupe in g-strings and tapis and serenaded him with gongs.
“We no longer have the inferiority complex of being a law school outside Manila,” said Jesus Salvosa, board chairman of UC.
Malimban admitted that he had been parrying answers about his secret of topping the Bar.
“I don’t have a secret actually. I just believed that I prayed harder than everyone else,” the diminutive Malimban said.
Like every pious pilgrim at this time of year, Malimban said that he went to all the major churches in Manila and Baguio while reviewing for the law examination.
“I regularly went to Manaoag Church during weekends while in Baguio. Then I went to Quiapo Church while in Manila and at the Manila Cathedral after the Bar,” he said.
“The Lord is good. I don’t deserve this but God’s grace gave me the strength to take the exam and the courage to wait for the results,” he said.
He also said that his only other secret is taking multivitamins.
“I probably overdosed on that,” he said.
Salvosa said that their students actually performed as well as the top law schools in Manila yet they only have a fraction of their resources.
“The tuition here is five times less than the top schools in Manila,” he said.
“But our teachers are one of the best north of Manila if not among the best in the country,” he said.
Reynaldo U. Agranzamendez said that they are expecting an influx of law students this schoolyear.
UC is planning to divide their law classes into three blocs (morning, afternoon and evening) to maximize the students who can enter the school.
Salvosa said that they taught their students to work particularly with grace under pressure.
“We put them in situations where they can excel under pressure,’ he said.
He also said that mastery of English is another key for their good performance in Law.
Malimban was born in Slaughterhouse Compound here in Baguio on August 19. 1975. He studied at the Baguio Patriotic School and later at Saint Louis University Elementary and Boy’s High. He also went to SLU for his accountancy course.
He placed 14th in the CPA exam.
Malimban, the youngest of three children, resigned from an accountancy firm in Manila to take up law in UC.
He aligned himself with some of the accountancy firms here while taking Law.
Since April 1 last year, he isolated himself in his room with all his law books within reach.