Lawyer Regal Oliva was elected today as the new Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter President.
Oliva, who previously served as vice president, expressed appreciation to the chapter for the election and said “the fact that I am unopposed speaks so much of the trust of the Chapter on the previous Board.”
Elected together with Oliva to compose the 24th Board of Officers are lawyers Michelle Mendez-Palmares as Vice President; Bernardino Amago IV as Secretary, Mark Anthony Gaviola as Treasurer, Dan delos Angeles as Auditor, and Elmer Mansanadez as PRO. Also elected as Chapter Directors are lawyers Mark Gregory Avila, Maricris Bathan-Lasco, Hazel Espina, Georgia Herrera and Christine Naranjo.
“The new Board will continue uplifting the law profession and will innovate more services that will not only cater to the members of the chapter, but to the whole community as well.” Oliva said, “I am also very pleased that the IBP National Board has started to elevate Gender and Development (GAD) as a continuing advocacy, and I will make sure that the Board I will lead will conform to a more inclusive IBP and hopefully, a GAD–focused Supreme Court.”
Incoming Vice President Palmares said, “we are at a time where lawyers are placed in volatile situations and we need to make sure, as a Chapter, that the rule of law will always be upheld and preserved.”
The IBP is the official organization of all Philippine lawyers, whose names appear in the Roll of Attorneys of the Supreme Court. The IBP came into being when the Supreme Court created, on October 5, 1970, the Commission on Bar Integration which was tasked “not only to ascertain the advisability of integration of the Bar, but even more, to serve as a common vehicle of the Court and the Bar in fashioning a blueprint for integration and putting the same into actual operation.
The new board will begin their term on April 1, 2019. It will end on March 30, 2021.
