MANILA, Philippines – After sustaining gunshot wounds, losing her mother, undergoing two major operations, spending four months in the hospital, and studying for six months, Ateneo law graduation shooting survivor Hannah Furigay is now a lawyer.

Hannah is the daughter of the late former Lamitan mayor Rose Furigay, who was shot and killed during Hannah’s supposed Ateneo Law School graduation in July 2022. The suspect, Chao Tiao Yumol, also killed the former mayor’s executive assistant Victor Capistrano and Ateneo security guard Jeneven Bandiala, and injured Hannah.

It was a challenging year for Hannah who had not only been recovering physically, but regaining the headspace to continue her journey to the bar.

“My family was my biggest motivation when I was studying…. It was really the thought of my mother that helped me keep going,” said Hannah in an interview with Rappler on Thursday, December 7.

Hannah had hoped to pass the Bar last year, start working, and help her family. “But I guess, things took a turn,” she said. (READ: ‘We are devastated’: What the Furigay family lost in the Ateneo shooting)

After the tragedy in July, Hannah’s law school batch was able to march in the ceremony that was rescheduled to December 2022.

Hannah was one of the 3,812 of 10,387 examinees who passed the 2023 Bar, as announced by the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, December 5.

‘It takes a village to raise a lawyer’

Following the shooting on July 24, 2022, Hannah underwent her first emergency surgery, where doctors determined three gunshot wounds.

According to her twin sister Kelsey, one grazed the left side of her face, another was lodged in her hip, and the third punctured her ileum – a part of her intestine. The third wound forced Hannah to live with a colostomy bag for around two months, after which she went through a second major surgery to remove the bag and close the wound, which would allow her natural bowel movements again.

It was a stressful time for the twins and their father, current Lamitan Mayor Roderick Furigay, especially as complications and infections came up along the way, too.

By February 2023, Hannah attempted to begin reviewing for the Bar.

“I think I was just kind of like trying my best to open a book every day and try to read. But it was still a struggle, because I don’t think at that time I was in a very good headspace. So I think I would say I really started around April,” she said.

Hannah had a support system that comprised not only her sister and father, but her sorority and friends who had taken care of her while she reviewed. She also found support in Ateneo, and the firm that she is going to work with.

Also in conversation with Rappler on Thursday, Kelsey said that while Hannah was studying, they focused on her health and general well-being.

“It takes a village to raise a lawyer. It really does. Because even from reminding her to drink water, she would forget to drink water. Like, she would just drink her matcha just to refuel. And then the bottle of water [we gave her] – she didn’t even finish it, and it’s already nighttime,” said Kelsey.

Kelsey likened Hannah’s support system to an operations business – from the hospital to study days. The “tag team” took care of food, kept track of expenses, and coordinated schedules and security.

Hannah said she felt like she had two brains – one for memorizing law concepts, and the other for daily survival. Her support system operated the second brain.

“I completely abandoned that latter brain…I really forgot to eat. I really forgot to drink water,” said Hannah. “I owe so much of [my achievement] to them.”

“We really do support Hannah. And we know how much this means to her. We just know that she’s meant to be the lawyer that she deserves to be,” said Kelsey.

Taking the bar, and passing it

Hannah’s sister and father sent her off every day of the three-day Bar exam in September. When she woke up at 3:30 am, so did Kelsey and Roderick. They would bring her downstairs at 4 am and send her off with her sorority, whom she rode with to the exam.

“There was always a send-off, and it made me feel so energized to take the exam. Not just my family, my sorority and all my friends, too,” said Hannah.

On the final day, September 24, Kelsey recalled how tired Hannah was. She had gone downstairs, seeming to be on the verge of a breakdown. Hannah’s father just held her as she tried to fight back tears.

“I had to set her aside and mentally slap her out of it. [I told her,] ‘You cannot go down now. You’ve worked so hard. Don’t give in to the emotions.’ I was telling her, ‘You’re an athlete. You got this. It’s the last stretch. The last stretch is supposed to be the hardest. Snap out of it, take the exam, and then come back. And then cry. Cry, cry every day,'” said Kelsey.

It was an emotional rollercoaster for all, which is why it felt like the whole family was taking the Bar, said Kelsey.

On the eve of the results announcement, Hannah and her father could not sleep. Hannah felt her stomach drop every five minutes waiting for the SC’s YouTube broadcast to go live. All of them had dry mouths, Kelsey said.

“What was running through my head was that I just didn’t want to disappoint my family, especially my dad, who put in so much effort. Especially Kelsey and all my friends,” she said.

The moment Hannah’s name appeared on the screen, it was a huge release of emotions for the twins and their father.

“I just turned into a big emotional ball. And Kelsey jumped on me when she heard the result. Like I think, I didn’t even think anymore, I was just hugging her, and she was on my lap, and then my dad came in. It was just, like, a big huddle,” said Hannah.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelsey Rose (@kelseyrmf)

“We just had that moment, just the three of us…. We just like really like celebrated as a family then I could tell in all the back of our minds [we were all thinking,] ‘We did it, we did it,'” said Kelsey.

They also kept their mother in their thoughts at that moment.

“I wish that she was just here to celebrate it, and it’s such a shame that she wasn’t here to see it all happen,” said Kelsey.

Channeling Mom

Since losing their mother Rose, Kelsey has thought of her every day, asking for guidance. She quipped that she has been “mildly possessed” by her, as she tried to channel her mom in taking care of her sister.

“I know that she was very smart and strategic in the things that she did. But also, she has such a generous and loving heart…I think for our whole lives, I think she deserves, like, 80% to 90% of the credit. She really raised us to be strong,” said Kelsey.

Kelsey said that if their mother was around for the announcement, she, too would be sharing in the family’s emotions. On Hannah’s supposed graduation day, Rose did not sleep, and her stomach was growling from not eating due to excitement for her daughter.

The sisters also do what they can to support their father, who lost the love of his life in the tragedy.

Kelsey also shared that the family had created the Rose Uy Furigay Foundation to carry on their mother’s legacy and advocacies of education and care for children and special needs individuals in Lamitan. It is set to be soft-launched this Christmas.

Hannah hopes her mother is proud of her.

“I feel like she’d be extremely proud of both of us, and I hope she is. I feel like she raised both of us to be very strong women, and she was the strongest woman I know, honestly. I truly hope she can see how much we we learned from her as a leader, as a woman,” said Hannah. – Rappler.com