MANDAUE City Treasurer and lawyer Regal Oliva was elected to lead the new set of officers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter.
With Oliva’s election, the lawyer said that the new set of officers will continue to uphold the rule of law, as they continue to face challenges in the legal profession including the recent killings of lawyers.
“This is the challenge of every lawyer now. We face the risks in our profession. Although we have been doing programs training lawyers on how to increase their physical protection and teach them the basics of what to do during hostile eventualities, we still feel that as an organization, we have to call and appeal to authorities and other sectors involved that lawyers are there to make sure that justice is served and that the wheels of justice is moving. We should not be treated as foes of the community,” Oliva told SunStar Cebu.
“But as it is, we have to face the risks of our profession head on. It is when society is at its most dangerous, lawyers are most needed,” Oliva added.
Lawyers, who are members of the IBP in the entire country, participated in the simultaneous elections held on Saturday, Feb. 23, to vote for the new set of officers in their chapters.
Oliva, who is unopposed during the election, also expressed appreciation to the IBP Cebu City Chapter for giving him the mandate and assured that undertaking during the previous leadership will be continued.
Oliva was the vice president of the previous board, with lawyer Jose Glenn Capanas as the president.
Other newly elected officers of the 24th Board of Officers of the IBP Cebu City chapter 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.
Lawyers Mark Gregory Avila, Maricris Bathan-Lasco, Hazel Espina, Georgia Herrera and Christine Naranjo were also elected as chapter directors.
Oliva pointed out that the new set of officers of the IBP Cebu City chapter will continue to uplift the law profession and will innovate more services that will not only cater to the members of the chapter, but to the whole community.
“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,” Oliva said. / RVC