Oliva is new IBP Cebu City President

Regal Oliva becomes new IBP Cebu City Chapter President in the recently concluded biennial elections of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter.

Lawyer members of the IBP, throughout the country, went to their respective polling places to participate in the simultaneous elections held on February 23, 2019, to vote for the new set of Officers in their chapters.

Oliva expressed appreciation to the IBP Cebu City Chapter for giving him this mandate and said: “that the fact that I am unopposed speaks so much of the trust of the Chapter to the previous Board and I assure them that the worthy undertakings commenced shall be continued and even done better.”

Oliva was the Vice President of the previous Board, with Jose Glenn Capanas as the President.

Elected together with Oliva to complete 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.

Oliva stressed that “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 added, “I am also very pleased that the IBP National Board has started to elevate Gender and Development (GAD) as 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 that “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.

Republic Act No. 6397, which became effective September 17, 1971, confirms the power of the Supreme Court to adopt rules of court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar. Then on January 9, 1973, the Supreme Court, by a curiam resolution, pursuant to its constitutional mandate, ordained the integration of the Bar in accordance with its Rule 139-A. The IBP was organized on February 17, 1973.

The new Board will begin their term on April 1, 2019, and will end on March 30, 2021.