From icons to icons.
The viral “I should’ve been informed” driver who waded his car in floodwaters before revealed that the topnotcher for the Bar 2024 was his student.
Lawyer and law professor Christopher Lao expressed his excitement for Kyle Christian Tutor, the first placer in the Supreme Court‘s Bar 2024 who obtained a grade of 85.7700%.
READ: FULL LIST: 2024 Bar exams passers
Tutor was a law student from the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he was a scholar of the UP Law Scholarship Program.
He also served as vice chair of the Philippine Law Journal in his last year at the UP College of Law and ranked second among the top ten highest scorers in the journal’s qualifying legal writing and editing exams for Volume 97 in 2023.
Tutor was also an intern at the UP Office of Legal Aid and the UP Law Internship Center.
Before taking up law, he graduated cum laude (with honor) from UP Manila with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2017.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra also said that Tutor spent years working as a legal secretary and planning officer at the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) while in law school.
He added that Tutor only resigned to review for the Bar exams.
RELATED: ‘Pa-tutor po’: Quips as Supreme Court announces 2024 Bar exams topnotcher
Of the 10,490 aspiring lawyers, 3,962 individuals passed this year’s Bar examinations, indicating a passing rate of 37.84%.
The oath-taking and the roll signing ceremonies of the successful examinees will take place on Jan. 24, 2025.
The Bar is the qualifying licensure examination by the high court which tests aspiring lawyers’ knowledge of fundamental legal principles and basic skills required of an entry-level lawyer in the country.
It is the only qualifying licensure exam among skilled professionals that the Professional Regulation Commission does not conduct.
Meanwhile, Lao, the driver who went viral in 2011 when he was just a law student himself, congratulated Tutor for his achievement.
“My student!” he commented on a news item with several raised hands emojis.
My student! 🙌🙌🙌 https://t.co/DRZfhKBB0Q
— Christopher Lao 劉文良 (@iamchrislao) December 13, 2024
Some followers of Lao reacted to this in the replies thread.
“Congratulations, prof!” an online user exclaimed.
“Kayo po ba ang nag-tutor sa kanya? Charot! Congrats… iba ang pakiramdam seeing your students thrive,” another X user wrote.
“I guess you could say you really ‘informed’ him as your student,” commented a different Pinoy, referencing one of Lao’s phrases on national TV that made him viral before.
Lao is the driver who rose to internet fame in 2011 when he drove his sedan right into the knee-deep floodwaters at Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon City as he attempted to cross a portion of the flooded area.
He blamed the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, traffic enforcers, and people hanging out near the flood for his predicament at that time, famously ranting to a reporter:
“They should have already blocked the road! I should have been informed. Nobody even stopped [me]!”
At that time, Lao was busy reviewing for the Bar as a law student at UP Diliman.
He became a victim of cyberbullying and revealed he underwent medication because of it.
Lao later became among the 1,913 passers for the 2011 Bar exams and went on to teach aspiring lawyers at UP Diliman and De La Salle University.
