Dear Beadles,

I hope everyone and everything is well with your and your classmates. Per our previous
arrangement, your classes were tasked with reading up on and preparing handwritten notes on
the remainder of Assignment 2 and the entirety of Assignment 3. These notes are supposed to
serve the dual purpose of being your personal reviewer and output while classes remained
suspended. The initial deadline for this output was supposed to fall on the first meeting after the
midterms.

However, due to the extension of the ECQ and the issuance of new guidelines by the College of
Law, We must make some changes. Pursuant to the College's guidelines, the midterms would
no longer push through and in its stead students would be required to work on legal research
papers, comparative case studies or similar assignments that could be done at home during
the quarantine period. Additionally, the remaining topics must be assigned for reading.
Subsequent to all these, would be the holding of a departmental final exam. Thereafter, the
grades will be computed as follows: 30% would be the class standing prior to the
suspension of classes, 30% percent based on the requirements done during the ECQ, and
the departmental final exam will account for the remaining 40%.

Given these guidelines We shall be doing the following:

1. The average recitation grades prior to the suspension of classes shall be equivalent to
30% of the final grade. You may recall that your recitation grades were shown to you during
the last meeting prior to the midterms. Hence, you already have an idea of your average
recitation grade and current class standing.

2. The handwritten notes covering the unfinished portion of Assignment 2 and the entirety of
Assignment 3 shall serve as the output corresponding to the legal research papers,
comparative case studies or similar assignments that could be done at home during the
quarantine period. The grade for such output shall be equivalent to 30% of the final grade.
Those who have been taking notes since the start of the semester which corresponds to the
midterms coverage, will be entitled to an additional 10 points to be added to the grade of their
ECQ output.

3. I have attached here the remaining assignments for the semester. It specifies the RPC
provisions, special penal laws, and jurisprudence that you must read up on. As per the
guidelines, a departmental final exam is still to be held. This means that there remains a need to
study and prepare for such exam. More importantly, it is also necessary to read up on these
assignments in order for you to continue to learn the subject. Hence, please continue to set
aside time to study the material both as preparation for the departmental final exam and for you
to learn the subject.

4. I believe that note taking is an effective way of processing the material that has been
assigned to you. It is meant to allow you to commit to memory and synthesize what you have
studied. This is the underlying reason why the class policy requires only handwritten notes
within the classroom. Pursuant to this, while you are no longer required to submit handwritten
notes on the subsequent assignments (Assignments 4-9 attached herein), I have decided to
provide incentives for those who will decide to continue to prepare notes on the remaining
assignments. it shall have the following mechanics:

a. Each assignment has a corresponding point incentive which is broken down as follows:
 Assignment Incentive
Points

4 8 points

5 5 points

6 4 points

7 5 points

8 4 points

9 4 points

TOTAL 30 POINTS

b. The incentive points shall be added to your final exam score. However, the total score with
the additional incentive, shall not exceed 110 points. To illustrate:

Incentive Points Score Actually Obtained in Final Exam Score With

Completed the Final Exam Incentives

30 Points 70 Points 100 Points

30 Points 60 Points 90 Points

30 Points 90 Points 110 Points (Capped)

30 Points 80 Points 110 Points

c. These handwritten notes shall be accomplished under the same guidelines as those
mentioned in my 23 March 2020 email, to wit:

"1. Ideally, the notes should not be a verbatim copying of your codal provision, the book, or of
the cases. It is best if you read up on the material first and summarize or note the salient points
of the law. For example, in the case of theft/robbery you may note the elements of such crime
ie. that there be taking of personal property. It is therefore necessary to determine what "taking"
means and when it is consummated. Likewise, the definition of "personal property" is also
material. You will be able to get these from your annotations and the cases assigned.

2. Prepare your notes as if it were your personal reviewer. Something that would be useful and
not merely in compliance to a requirement. Doing otherwise would render the whole exercise
pointless and a waste of time.

XXX

4. If you have questions that cannot be answered by the materials you have, note these down.
Try to research on jurisprudence or annotations that would answer these questions. Considering
that this is a post-graduate class, it is expected that you are able to conduct basic research. In
any case, note these questions and we will deal with them when we resume class."

With this in mind, I reserve the right to evaluate the output using these standards in order to
ensure that these at least meets minimum standards.

d. The incentive system should not be taken as an excuse not to study the materials given. The
arrangement of the assignments and the points associated with it are both based on the
importance of the subject matter and its general length. One factor should not be taken above
the other. Hence, it remains necessary to at least study all these topics, while leaving to your
own discretion whether you shall take down notes and avail of the incentives. The incentives are
not a substitute to an actual study of the material. Keep in mind that while the incentives may
make you pass the subject, you must still hurdle Criminal Law Review, the Bar Exam and
competently practice law. Hence the need to understand these concepts is the paramount
consideration. The incentives are merely there to aid you in your studying and to mitigate the
impact of the departmental final exam.

e. The submission of these notes including those for Assignment 2 and 3 shall be set three days
from the conclusion of the departmental final exams. I will coordinate with you then for how this
is to be done.

5. My 23 March 2020 email also advised you to take note of any questions you may have
regarding the remaining portion of Assignment 2 and 3. The same stands for the new notes
you will be executing for Assignments 4 to 9. This is true regardless of whether you choose
to avail of the incentives or not. Relevant to this, may I request the beadles to collate for me
the questions you have regarding the topics covered by Assignment 2 and 3. My advice is
to set up subgroups so that the collation of these questions will be less
burdensome. Please email me these questions by 8 May 2020. As for the questions for
Assignments 4-9, we shall adopt the following schedule regarding the submission to me of
your questions:

Assignment Date of Submission of

Questions

Assignments 4 and 5 15 May 2020

Assignments 6 and 7 22 May 2020

Assignments 8 and 9 29 May 2020

6. I will answer these questions either in writing or in a zoom meeting which we will tentatively
hold on June 1,2, and 3, 2020 at 9 am to 12nn and 1;30-4;30 pm. This will stand in stead of the
actual class lecture. Please make the necessary preparations for this.

Should there be any further questions regarding the matters above, please feel free to reach
me. Stay safe and God bless you and your families.

Atty. Mercader