PAGCOR employee who passed bar exam shares difficult law school journey

Pursuing law has always been in the bucket list of Casino Filipino Cebu Pit Manager Malou Pangalangan, one of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation’s (PAGCOR’s) employees who passed the 2022 Philippine Bar Examination.

Although she has always wanted to become a lawyer, the challenge of pursuing her childhood dream while earning a living made Pangalangan think twice about pursuing a law degree because of work schedules.

Working with PAGCOR for 18 years now, the proud product of University of Cebu Law School shared that she was initially reluctant to chase her dream as she was unsure if she could juggle her time between work and school.

Her plan stayed in the backburner for a time until she married her fellow casino dealer Edwin and met her father-in-law who inspired her to chase her dream.

“I eventually realized that it’s really good to be a lawyer and it was time for me to pursue it,” shared the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics graduate.

Pangalangan’s journey to become a lawyer proved to be difficult and extremely challenging as six months prior to the 2022 bar exams, she had to temporarily take a leave of absence from her job without pay to review and to prepare.

Her hard work and perseverance paid off when the results of the 2022 Philippine Bar Examination came out and she saw her name among the list of successful examinees.

“I felt so relieved that I fell asleep the moment I learned that I passed the bar exams,” she recalled with a smile.

Pangalangan credited PAGCOR for helping her realize her dream that she does not mind leaving the gaming operations to join the agency’s team of competent lawyers in the future.

“If given a chance, I’d like to practice my law profession with PAGCOR first before pursuing other related endeavors outside of it,” she concluded.