SINCE 2010, five lawyers have run for the presidency of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City and all of them won because their candidacies were uncontested.
The IBP Cebu City Chapter, which currently has more than 2,000 members, proclaimed its newly elected set of officers during a nationwide chapter elections on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021. The officers will serve for two years.
The new president is lawyer Michelle Palmares, who had served the IBP Cebu City Board of Officers in various capacities for 21 years. She had no opponents in the election.
She will replace the current president, lawyer Regal Oliva, who also ran unopposed in 2019.
The other lawyers who ran for the IBP Cebu City top post unopposed were Mae Elaine Bathan in 2013, Hidelito Pascual in 2015 (Pascual succumbed to a heart attack in 2017), and Jose Glenn Capanas in 2017.
Asked why there were no other candidates in the elections since 2013, Oliva said she “would have to attribute that to strong and exemplary leadership of the Board. And the transition to one leader to the other has been smooth. The members of the Cebu City Chapter also feel content of the breed of service that we have shown for the last 10 years, putting lawyers first and the compassion and care to serve.”