ADVISERS
JUSTICE AMEURFINA M. HERRERRA
LILY C. LIMPE
LILIA B. DE LIMA
BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2007-2009)
MA. MERCEDITAS NAVARRO-GUTIERREZ
Director / President / Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means
She is a graduate of the College of the Holy Spirit and the Ateneo Law School. She took up post graduate studies on International Law and Development from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands.
She started her government service in 1974.
In the Department of Justice, she served for 23 years, as State Counsel, Assistant Chief State Counsel, Undersecretary and Acting Secretary of Justice. In 2004, the President appointed her as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and also tapped her later as the Anti-Corruption Czar. In November 2005, she was made Acting Executive Secretary when the Executive Secretary went abroad on official mission. In December 2005, she was appointed Ombudsman, nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council, by a unanimous vote.
There had been many occasions when she represented the Philippines in high level international conferences and in the negotiations of bilateral agreements. These were on:
As Undersecretary of Justice, she was also the Chairperson of numerous committees.
For her exemplary performance in public service, Ombudsman Gutierrez received the following:
For all these achievements, she has remained one of the least recognizable public figures in recent years. This is owing to her work ethic of doing the best one is capable of, with the least fuss, while ensuring that those affected by her decisions received the fullest protection of their rights. She is a firm believer of skills working together with the proper values, so that one’s work is carried out professionally, responsibly and humanely. She urges bureaucrats everywhere to be purposefully helpful to ordinary citizens, have a sense of broad view, consciously contribute to strengthen institutions, develop an appreciation of one’s role in society, nurture courage and honor, and embrace a strong commitment to be an instrument for the common good.
Ombudsman Gutierrez had aimed to be a public school teacher in her younger days, but her desire to emulate her late father, who was a staunch anti-corruption and justice crusader in their native province of Bataan, made her shift to a career in law. In a recent issue of Philippine Graphic, she was aptly referred to as the graftbuster’s daughter. And so it will be for this courageous lady lawyer who declared upon her being named as the new Ombudsman: “I will be merciless to the grafters. . . no one can bribe me!”
ELIZABETH R. PADRON
Director / Executive Vice President / Co-Chair, Committee on Ways and Means
She graduated from Ateneo de Manila School of Law in 1980 and passed the bar given on the same year. She is the youngest of the seven (7) sons and five (5) daughters of the late spouses Thomas G. Padron and Maria C. Ramones of Aurora, Isabela. A Libran, she proved to be the diplomat of the zodiac sign as she is outgoing and optimistic in her approach to life. Her colleagues in various organizations describe her as one. She is also known to give a helping hand always and has a great sense of humor.
After law school, she joined government for a year and later transferred to a private management corporation to become its General Counsel for nine (9) years. At present, she is into general practice and has put her own law office E. R. PADRON & ASSOCIATES. She is an officer and member of different law organizations, where she served in various capacities. She is Founding Director, Women Trial Lawyers Association of the Philippines (WTLAP); President, Ateneo de Manila College of Law Class 1980, Inc.; Member, International Bar Association (IBA), Philippine Bar Association (PBA), Legal Management Council of the Philippines (LMCP), Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industries (ICCI).
MARY JANE T. ARADA
Director
Born on January 11, 1950, Jane has a degree in Bachelor of Education, major in English, Master of Arts in English, with honors in English candidate, and Bachelor of Laws in Manuel L. Quezon (MLQ) University. She passed the Bar in 1999.
She served as Attorney IV at the National Food Authority (NFA) Legal Department until 2000. Thereafter, she joined the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA) as Division Chief III, Industrial Relation Division. She was also assigned at PCDU, PEZA.
Jane is presently the Officer-in-Charge Zone Manager at Amkor Special Eco Zone, Muntinlupa City.
MARIA AURORA P. CORTES
Director
She was awarded as one of the eleven Public Servants for the year 2002 by the National Students Consensus. Was also granted full scholarship at the Academy of American and International Law in Dallas, Texas.
Judge Rory served as Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General and currently serving as Trustee/Director and Corporate Secretary of the Board of the Rotary Streetchildren Foundation. She, likewise, served as Centennial President of RC Manila West, District 3810.
LEONCIA REAL-DIMAGIBA
Director
Judge Leony graduated from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law in 1972. Since she became a lawyer in 1973, she has been in the government and private services which culminated in her being the Presiding Judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 194, Parañaque City, a family court, a position she has been holding since April 2002. Prior thereto, she was an Assistant City Prosecutor of Manila for fifteen years starting 1987 until her appointment to the Judiciary in April 2002.
As a Prosecutor, she was cited as an Outstanding Pillar of the Criminal Justice System.
Despite her heavy workload in the court, she finds time to render community service. She is an active Rotarian, and a volunteer of the “Pangsabadong Abogado Handog Namin sa Iyo”, among others.
She specializes in family law and laws involving women and children and criminal law.
ERLINDA BULAONG-FERRER
Director
She attended the Ateneo de Manila Univsersity School of Law from 1968 to 1972 and passed the Philippine Bar in 1972. She joined the National Food Authority (NFA) as Registration and Licensing Officer in the same year. While in NFA, she occupied several positions, including Regional Director, Region XI, Operations Specialist and Assistant Director for Non-Grains Operations, NFA Central Office. In 1989, she availed of the NFA early retirement program.
After her retirement from a very fruitful government service, she joined the Ferrer & Associates Law Offices. She is also connected as Director/Legal Consultant of Valueland Properties Inc., Right Angle Properties, Inc., and Natureway Properties, Inc. All of these are real estate firms where she and her partners now give most of their time in matching job opportunities and helping provide affordable housing for the Filipino people.
VILMA Q. FLORES
Director
Vilma, a multi-faceted citizen of the world, continues to optimize the talents given her. A lawyer by educational training, she has been in the Housing Industry for twenty-five (25) years. She started with Pag-IBIG Fund as a Trial Attorney, rising from the ranks to become the Assistant General Counsel seven (7) years later. At present, she is serving the Pag-IBIG Fund members in her capacity as Vice-President for North Luzon Group, covering the northern regions of the Philippines. As a valued officer, she received the Pag-IBIG Fund Gantimpala Agad Award for Career and Self Development in 2004. To keep her up-to-date on housing development, she has attended study programs and conferences on the matter, such as the Wharton School’s International Housing Finance Programs: “Improving Housing Finance Systems in Emerging and Advanced Economies” in 2002 and “Workshop on Securitization” in June 2007. She has presented her papers on “Housing Finance: The Pag-IBIG Fund Experience” at the joint Congress of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and the European Federation of Building Societies (UN Habitat and EFBS) in Berlin, Germany in 2004; and Life in the Urban Landscape Conference at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2005. She also participated in the World Urban Forum held in Barcelona, Spain in 2004.
Her legal education being one of her strengths as a player in the Housing Industry, she stays abreast on the latest progress in law. She has been a constant participant of the biennial Conference on the Law of the World (Montreal, Canada in 1995), as well as the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. She often meets with her lawyer-classmates and friends from the Ateneo de Manila University College of Law, where she graduated Salutatorian in 1979. She never stops learning, be the lessons academic or otherwise.
She spent her formative years in the top public schools in her province, graduating Valedictorian at the Camangaan (Vigan) Elementary School in 1963 and Salutatorian at the Ilocos Sur National High School in 1967. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines, where she was admitted to the International Honor Societies of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Gamma Mu. She completed the academic units for the Master in Business & Public Administration program of Pag-IBIG Fund and De la Salle University. In 1990, she earned a Certificate of General Management for State Enterprises from Maastricht (The Netherlands) School of Management, then known as RVB. Five years later, she finished her Master in Public Management at the Development Academy of the Philippines.
She has also earned a Certificate for Special Course for Functional Iridologist from the Iridology Foundation of the Philippines. She has been an active Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors since 2006. Amidst this quest for knowledge, she has developed a passion for gender issues. She has applied her learnings from the Women’s Conferences in Beijing, China in 1995 and in New York, U.S.A. in 2002 to the Pag-IBIG Fund microcosm. An active gender advocate, she has chaired the Pag-IBIG Fund Focal Point for Gender, facilitating the gender workshops for Pag-IBIG Fund employees.
She is presently a Director and Treasurer of the National Union of Career Executive Service Officers (NUCESCO), Inc., and Director of the Federacion Internacional de Abogadas (FIDA) Philippine Chapter. On her relaxed times, she enjoys the culinary creations of her husband, Ely, and son, Keith; keeps watch on the international activities of her younger daughter, Liv; and dotingly lavishes her love on Luce Domini, her granddaughter by elder daughter, Faye.
VIVIAN L. GONZAGA
Director
After she finished law from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law and passed the Bar, she was in government service until 1989. She went into business for a while and again served as legal consultant of various government agencies and private organizations.
She is currently a Consultant in the Office of the Ombudsman and also of some private companies, as well as the family corporation. She is a member of a Catholic Charismatic and Healing Ministry group and spends her free time baby sitting her first grandson.
LINDA L. MALENA-HORNILLA
Director
Linda has been with FIDA for the last twelve(12) years now.
She is a graduate of the UP-College of Law, the National Defense College of the Philippines (NCDP) with a Master in National Security Administration (MNSA) and finished special studies at the Taoyuan Land Reform Institute, Taiwan, Institute for Housing Studies, Boucentrum, (Rotterdam, Netherlands) and Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. She also attended the American and International Comparative Law Course at Dallas, Texas.
She has occupied various positions in government starting as a public school teacher, project supervisor and Attorney V of the Housing Land Use Regulatory Board, Solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor General, State Prosecutor at the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DOJ), Associate Commissioner at the Bureau of Immigration (DOJ), Commissioner and Officer-in Charge at the National Police Commission, and professor of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Currently, she is a professorial lecturer and a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution of the PHILJA and the Chairperson of the technical panel of the Criminal Justice Education of the Commission on Higher Education.
A member of various organizations, she has kept her interest in women and children issues, human trafficking, anti-corruption, and alternative dispute resolution issues.
EPIFANIA Q. NAVARRO-MENDOZA
Director
Formerly Vice-President and Chief Finance Officer of a group of companies engaged in international shipping and freight forwarding business. Prior to this, she was connected with two of the country’s most prestigious auditing firms and among the Big Six audit firms in the world as Senior Tax Manager. She was also formerly Head of banking, immigration, corporate and tax services of a law firm. She acted as accountant/auditor and consultant to various prominent individuals and companies, had lectured and had been invited as resource person in various seminars. She was once professorial lecturer of various universities and review schools in Metro Manila and a columnist in the Business World under the column Tax Wise or Otherwise.
Currently, Director of Federacion Internacional de Abogadas (FIDA) and Treasurer of Ateneo Class of 1980, Inc. She is the Managing Partner of Clerigo Mendoza Navarro and Co.
She is a lawyer and a certified public accountant. A graduate of the Ateneo Law School Class 1980, she was a consistent Dean’s lister and finished among the top to the graduating class. She earned her accounting degree from the University of Baguio where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Class Valedictorian. She is a Bar Topnotcher placing 9th in the 1980 Bar examination. She likewise topped the nationwide Revenue Examiners Basic Training Course for Bureau of Internal Revenue and landed first place in the final CPA pre-board examination of PSBA Review School. She also took up Master in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines, where she was a civil service scholar and a consistent academic scholar.
Recently, she was endorsed by the Philippine Judicial Academy for possible appointment in the Bench.
MARITA V. PADOLINA
Director / Auditor
Atty. Marita is currently a Labor Arbiter at the National Labor Relations Commission, National Capital Region (NCR). Appointed in 1999, she is now the first woman President of the National Association of Labor Arbiters, Inc. (NALAI), a strong association of Labor Arbiters all over the Philippines.
Prior to her joining the government service, she was Legal Counsel of the Lucio Tan Group of Companies, particularly the Fortune Tobacco Corporation from May 1988 up to January 1999.
“Marits” as she is fondly called is a fighter for truth and justice. She is a women of courage and conviction. She still believes that public office is a public trust and believes that “a beautiful women smiles in trials, keeps herself calm and grows stronger through love and prayers”. She surely is a woman to watch as she is determined to go up the government ladder and deliver basic services and justice to the people.
MARIA AMIFAITH S. FIDER-REYES
Director / Vice-President for Visayas
Judge Amifaith was appointed Presiding Judge of the Regional Trial Court (Branch 42-Commercial Court) of the City of San Fernando, Pampanga on October 15, 2005.
Prior to her appointment to the Judiciary, she was a name partner of Palma Ybañez Fider-Reyes and Teleron Law Offices in Cebu City, where she had been residing for the last six years. Her practice involved corporation matters, intellectual property, banking and special projects.
When she was based in Cebu City, she was a member of the faculties of law, respectively, of the University of San Jose-Recoletos and the University of Southern Philippines.
Before setting up residence in Cebu City, she was an Associate of the SyCip Salazar Hernandez and Gatmaitan Law Offices (1966-2001); a Legal Counsel of the University of the Philippines System (1996); and has served as Court Attorney to several justices of the appellate courts, namely: Hon. Pacita Canizares-Nye (Court of Appeals, 1995-1996); Hon. Jose Campos (Supreme Court, 1992); Hon. Flerida Ruth P. Romero (Supreme Court, 1991-1992; and Hon. Abraham F. Sarmiento (Supreme Court, 1988-1992).
She was a Research Fellow, based in London from 1992-1993, of the Programme for International Rights of the Child of the School of Law of the University of London-QMW.
She is a graduate of the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines system, Class ’88, College of Law; Class ’83, College of Arts and Sciences (major in Political Science); Batch ’79 (UP Integrated School), and was a Features Editor of the Philippine Collegian in college (1981-1982).
The judge was also at one time Inner Wheel Club of Cebu Club President and Chapter Secretary of the IBP-KALMANA Chapter.
Married to a banker, Edward John T. Reyes of the Land Bank of the Philippines, she plays golf and is a flamenco dancer.
MA. JOSEFINA SAN JUAN-TORRES
Director / Chairman on Media Affairs
Atty. Joy graduated from the University of the Philippines with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications (cum laude), major in Broadcasting and minor in European Languages. She finished law with the degree in Doctor of Jurisprudence from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law and passed the Philippine Bar examinations in 1994.
She has extensive training and experience in the field of human rights particularly in the areas concerning refugees, women and children. Atty. Torres is presently connected with the Court of Appeals with the position of Executive Clerk of Court III of the First Division of said Court.
NINA G. ANTONIO-VALENZUELA
Director
Judge Nina is mother to 10-year old boy, Alberto Clemente (Toby), wife to Atty. Alberto E. Valenzuela Jr., and daughter to almost 80-year old physician, Dr. Natividad Z. Geluz-Antonio. Her father, Atty. Clemente E. Antonio, is deceased.
She obtained her early education from the St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, where she studied preparatory school until sixth grade. She studied high school and obtained her degrees in Psychology and Law, from the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.
She begun her judicial career as Presiding Judge of the Metropolitan Trial Court, Branch 30, Manila in the year 2000. She has been the Presiding Judge, Regional Trial Court, Branch 28, Manila, since 2004. Aside from being a member of the Judiciary, Judge Nina is also a law professor at the Adamson University College of Law.
She loves books. Among her favorite reads are Charlotte’s Web, Wuthering Heights and One Hundred Years of Solitude.
MA. ZITA CLAUSTRO-VALERA
Director / Vice-President for Luzon
Atty. Ching is former Governor for Northern Luzon, Integrated Bar of the Philippines and a former Legal Counsel for the Development Academy of the Philippines.
Also a former Governor of the Province of Abra and a former Mayor of Bangued, Abra.
Presently, she is involved in private consultancy work.
OFFICERS
SYLVA F. AGUIRRE-PADERANGA
Vice-President for Visayas
Judge Sylva A. Paderanga is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law, class of 1978. She is the incumbent Presiding Judge of Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 16, Cebu City. She was the former presiding judge and acting presiding judge of RTC Branch 25, Danao City, Cebu. She was also a former court Confidential Attorney assigned to Supreme Court Associate Justice Ramon C. Fernandez and Efren I. Plana. Before becoming an RTC Judge, she was the Corporate Secretary and Associate General Counsel of the Aboitiz Group of Companies based in Cebu.
Judge Sylva has received several awards and citations for her professional excellence in a diverse legal career that includes a Supreme Court clerkship, legal counseling for a bank and conglomerate, voluntary arbitration and private law practice for the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Cebu and Cebu City Chapters, U.P. Women Lawyers Circle (WILOCI), Association of Voluntary Arbitrators of Central Visayas, Inc. and the UP Law Alumni Cebu Foundation, Inc., among others. For her dynamic and creative leadership of civic organizations and zealous commitment to the cause of the underprivileged, particularly women and children, she received commendations and awards from the FIDA Cebu Chapter, Inner Wheel Clubs of the Philippine;s, Inc., Rotary Clubs, Cebu Woman’s Club, Inc., and the Lihok Pilipina Foundation, Inc., to name a few.
She has participated in numerous conferences, conventions, seminars, trainings, and workshops locally and internationally, not only as a member of the bench and of the Philippine Bar, but as a socio-civic leader as well, on various topics or subjects, like management and leadership, commercial and corporate legal practice, special corporate projects (public listing, mergers and finance), banking, intellectual property, voluntary arbitration, family law, labor, environment protection and enforcement, women and children’s rights, gender consciousness, judicial reform, immigration and the like.
The judge is married to Atty. Goering George C. Paderanga, a former classmate and fellow member of the UP Law Alumni Cebu Foundation, Inc., with whom she has three children: Atty Gerik Caesare, Georgeane Golda and Goering George, Jr.
EMMA C. EGAY
Vice-President for Mindanao
Atty. Emma is a practicing lawyer and a lifetime member of FIDA. She was a FIDA Director from 2005-07 and currently, the Vice-President for Mindanao.
She is a regular radio anchor of FIDA’s weekly radio program “Ayon sa Batas” over DWBL. She attended the biennial conference of WJA (World Jurist Association) in Beijing-Shanghai last September 2005.
She taught in FEATI University for many years and had been a government overseas contract worker as a teacher in Africa for years before she decided to study law (a high school love).
MERIANTHE P. M. ZURAEK
Secretary
“Rian" to friends, she finished her Bachelor of Laws at the Ateneo de Manila School of Law and embarked on a career in government service that spanned sixteen years. She held various responsible positions such as Senior Executive Assistant II at the Department of the Interior and Local Government, municipal councilor of Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, three term provincial Board Member, Deputy Chief Public Attorney and Associate Commissioner of the COSLAP.
To honor her legal skills, she has been engaged in private practice for over eighteen years doing litigation, counseling, research, and documentation. She has taught political law and business law subjects at the St. Mary’s University College of Law and Zintel College, respectively.
A life-long learner, Atty. Zuraek, continuously attends seminars and courses, the latest of which is in the Den International Hojskole in Denmark, focusing on international conflict resolution and peace management, globalization, and sustainability of resources and shared environment to keep herself abreast with current international trends and development and learn best practices that she puts to use in her professional and personal life.
NORA M. SALUDARES
Treasurer
A graduate of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, College of Commerce and San Beda College of Law, Nora is a CPA-Lawyer.
She is presently connected with the GSIS in the staff of the Office of the Senior Executive Vice-President (OSEVP). She has been in the government service for 26 years.
RUBY RUIZ-BRUNO
Public Relations Officer
Atty. Ruby graduated from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law where she was a scholar and honors student. Immediately after passing the bar in 1987, she joined the Development Bank of the Philippines and did litigation work before leaving in 1989 to go on her own. She also wrote legal columns, among them LAY LAW in Manila Bulletin, BUSINESS & LAW in Manila Times, PEOPLE’S LAW in People’s Tonight and DEAR ATORNI in Diwaliwan (a magazine circulated among overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong and Italy), and co-hosted a radio program, ITO ANG BATAS, over DZEC. From 2002-2004, she was Corporate Secretary and Chief Legal Counsel of People’s Journal, People’s Journal Tonight and People’s Taliba newspapers and Women’s and Insider magazines. In 2006, she and another FIDAN doctor-lawyer Tess Sanchez, co-hosted a show called FOR WOMEN ONLY (AND FOR MEN TOO . . . SOMETIMES) over NBN-4, combining medical and legal issues in a freewheeling discussion with guest lawyers and doctors, the first program to do so in television history.
Atty. Bruno is the only Filipino among fifty scholars from thirty four countries who took up an intensive studying-and-living- together course in Salzburg, Austria in 1997 on American law and latest developments in American legal institutions. Her private practice covers a wide range of law, including civil, criminal, corporate, labor and election law.
MA. JESUSA ELEANOR P. SIQUIJOR
Business Manager
Atty. Jessica is presently a State Solicitor II at the Office of the Solicitor General. She has worked for fourteen years at the Supreme Court of the Philippines and rose from the ranks, starting as a Court Reporter at RTC Branch 117 Pasay City in August 1988. She attended night school at the Arellano Law School and was able to complete her law studies in 1999. She had a kidney transplant operation in that same year, and after she had slowly recuperated, she took and passed the 2001 Bar exams.
She was born with Spina Bifida, but despite her physical handicap, she championed the cause of disabled persons and continues to be an active member of different organizations for persons with disability (PWDs), such as Archdiocese of Manila Office for Persons with Disabilities Ministries (AMO-PDM); Alyansa ng May Kapansanang Pinoy (AKAPIN); Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled (PHILSPADA); Spinal Cord Injury of the Philippines Foundation, Inc. (SCIPI); Kidney Transplant Association of the Philippines (KITAP); Support and Empower Abused Deaf Children (SEADC); Philippine Registry of Interpreters for the Dear (PRID), etc.
In 1997, she was a part-time radio broadcaster at DWAN 1206 and became a regular once a month host of FIDA’s Ayon sa Batas at DWBL 1242 khz. She is also currently taking her LLM studies at the University of Santo Tomas and currently drafting proposal for the creation of a Special Court (DEAF Court) to assist deaf litigants in Philippine courts and is undergoing training to become an official court sign language interpreter.
ALMA D. MARTIN
Chairman, Legal Aid Center
Atty. Alma is a peaceful and a happy soul, a single parent with two (2) sons and two (2) grandsons.
She attended elementary and high school at St. Theresa’s College, Manila (1955-1966), obtained her Bachelor of Science degree major in Accounting at Laguna Institute (now Laguna College of Business and Arts) in Calamba City, Laguna in 1971, finished her Bachelor of Laws from the Ateneo de Manila Universisty in 1979, and passed the Bar in 1980.
She worked for ten (10) years at Aboitiz Shipping Corporation, beginning as a Legal Aide and ending as Assistant Attorney. While working for the Aboitiz group, she was a Contributor in its newsletter “Foghorn” and was one of the judges of the “Best Maintained Vessel” contest. She also attended the “Program of Instruction for Lawyers” at Harvard University Law School and stayed in the United States for a while. Worked briefly for the government at the Department of Finance as one of their Attorneys then went to private law practice at A. Martin Law Office located at 1097 Chino Roces Avenue, Barangay Sta. Cruz, Makati City.
Atty. Alma is a member of professional organizations, like Integrated Bar of the Philippines; the Community Pillar of the National Police Commission’s Technical Committee on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice; Federation Internacional de Abogadas (FIDA), Philippine Branch, where she is the representative of FIDA to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines’ Technical Committee on Anti-Trafficking of Persons and Technical Committee on Violence against Women.
She was also member and officer of various civic organizations like Teresa Makabayan of St. Theresa’s College; Vice President for Education of the Pilipinas Toastmasters Club; President of Rotary Club of University District Manila; and Secretary of the Luzon Federation of Lodges and Study Groups of the Theosophical Society in the Philippines.
JEAN G. PANTALEON
Co-Chair, Legal Aid Center
Atty. Jean is currently the Corporate Secretary, Acting Legal Manager and Head Executive Assistant of John Hay Management Corporation.
She was formerly a multi-disciplinary lawyer associate at Sycip Salazar Hernandez Gatmaitan Law Offices, where she became a member of the lawyers’ World Services Group and was invited entrant to MARQUIS Who’s Who in the World. Also a well-recognized former Associate Director in tax and corporate law at SGV & Co., with her Value-Added Tax (VAT) article (co-authored with SGV senior partner Jose A. Osana) published by SGV at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, September 2005 and at the SGV Review, December 2005.
She was also a well-commended former Senate Committee Secretary and Chief Legislative Staff Officer, especially by Senators (now Foreign Affairs Secretary) Alberto G. Romulo, Edgardo Angara, and Francisco S. Tatad, as well as a well-commended former Chief of Staff, Supreme Court of the Philippines (Chamber of Justice Renato C. Corona).
A Public Administration graduate (cum Laude) from the University of the Philippines, she had been an accomplished full-time working law student, with recognition from the Commission on Appointments’ successive Secretaries Catherine H. Bello, Jose Policarpio, Casiano O. Flores, and Plaque of Recognition-Resolution from the late CA Chair Blas F. Ople, Graduted from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law as Second Honors awardee and top seven in class, Juris Doctor. She was Bar top three in the 2000 Bar examinations.
