JUDGING PANEL 

Each year, ALB invites an independent judging panel of senior and expert legal industry leaders from various sectors corresponding to the diverse list of award categories. ALB is pleased to introduce some of the distinguished judges. The rest of the panel will be revealed on the evening of the awards.

Hon. Roman G. Del Rosario
Presiding Justice, Court of Tax Appeals

Hon. Roman G. Del Rosario was appointed on March 13, 2013, as the Presiding Justice of the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA). At present, he presides over the proceedings of the CTA En Banc, serves as Chairperson of the CTA First Division, member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and member of the PHILJA Corps of Professors and PHILJA Academic Council. He is the Chairperson of the PHILJA Tax Department.

Presiding Justice Del Rosario is also a member of various committees created by the Supreme Court including the SC Governing Council for Mental Health, Committee on Research on Salient Jurisprudence; Judiciary Budget Committee; Committee on Security; Technical Working Group on Judicial Integrity (Committee on Continuing Legal Education and Bar Matters of the Supreme Court); Special Committee to Review the Plantilla Position and Salary Grade of Officials and Employees in the Judiciary; Special Judiciary-Wide Committee on Annual Report; Judiciary-Wide Committee on Performance Based Bonus; Committee on Computerization and Library; Sub-Committee for the Revision of the 1997 Rules on Civil Procedure; and, Sub-Committee on the Revision of the Rules on Criminal Procedure.

Ben Ferdinand Cruz
Asia Cluster ERC Head, Sandoz (a Novartis Division)
 
Has extensive legal training and professional work experience for 15+ years now as a Commercial Law practitioner and Compliance and Business Ethics expert in various corporate settings: both in private local and multinational corporations (MNCs), the Philippines’ SEC, government-owned and controlled corporation, and also in the academe.
 
Experienced country Legal & Compliance professional with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceutical industry, and is currently responsible for countries in Asia, which include Bangladesh, Maldives & Sri Lanka, Malaysia & Brunei, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines as ASIA Cluster Ethics, Risk & Compliance (ERC) Head for Sandoz.

Daisy P. Arce
President, Capital Markets Integrity Corporation
 
A corporate lawyer with extensive experience in organizing and restructuring business corporations, mergers, divisions and acquisitions, capital restructuring, and their customized documentations, Ms. Arce was a partner in Quasha Ancheta Pena and Nolasco, one of the oldest law firms in the Philippines and had charge of its Banking and Corporate Finance group handling diverse and complex financial transactions of local and international investors covering syndications, FX loans and facilities, project financing, structuring security and collateral arrangements, remedial strategy and asset recovery. She was legal advisor to the Philippine Stock Exchange and the latter’s wholly owned subsidiary and regulatory arm, the Capital Markets Integrity Corporation. Currently she is President of the Capital Markets Integrity Corporation.

Fernando S. Penarroyo
Chairperson, Professional Regulatory Board of Geology
Professional Regulation Commission

FERNANDO S. PEÑARROYO is currently the Chairperson, Professional Regulatory Board of Ge-ology at Professional Regulation Commission. He is also the Managing Partner at the Peñarroyo and Palanca Law Offices. He was the former Group Legal Counsel and General Manager for Busi-ness Development of Polyard Petroleum International Group Co. Ltd. He practices in the area of en-ergy, resources, environment, infrastructure, and corporate law and possesses the required legal, financial, and technical educational background and experience having worked for the government (Department of Energy) and private sector, both locally and internationally (Australia). 
 
He is the former President of the Geological Society of the Philippines, current Vice President of the Philippine Mining and Exploration Association, and former Director of the International Geothermal Association. He was actively involved as an officer and legal counsel in industry associations like the National Geothermal Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, Phil-ippine Petroleum Association of the Upstream Industry, and Philippine Chamber of Coal Mines. He lectured at the Asian Institute of Technology, MBA-JD Program of the De La Salle-FEU Institute of Law, and the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences. He regularly contributes articles and commentaries on legal, regulatory, and policy issues on resources, energy, and infrastructure to the Philippine Resources Journal. His commentaries are also archived at his personal blog site - https://penarroyo.com/.

Geraldine Meneses-Terrible
Interim General Counsel – SEA, Jones Lang LaSalle

Geraldine Meneses-Terrible is the Interim General Counsel for Southeast Asia of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a global commercial real estate services company.  She provides legal support to the management and business lines of JLL on various commercial, operations, compliance and regulatory issues, as well as acquisitions, restructuring and cross-border transactions in Southeast Asia. Prior to working as an in-house counsel, she was a Senior Associate at Fortun Narvasa & Salazar where she performed corporate and litigation work.  She has more than 14 years of litigation and commercial law experience.

Geraldine obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration at the University of the Philippines where she graduated cum laude and earned her law degree from San Beda College.  

Jhimmy Portugal Santiago
General Counsel, Light Rail Manila Corporation

Atty. Santiago is the General Counsel for Light Rail Manila Corporation, the private concessionaire operating the Light Rail Transit Line-1 system. Prior to holding this position, he was the Governance and Compliance Head of LRMC. Before joining LRMC, he was a partner for Litigation and Labor of the Carag Zaballero San Pablo and Abiera Law Office.

He obtained his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management Economics from the Ateneo De Manila University in 2001 and his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines in 2006.

He is also an Investigating Commissioner of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Commission on Bar Discipline.

Jun P Bautista
Counsel, King & Spalding (Singapore) LLP

Jun Bautista is counsel in King & Spalding’s Singapore office and is a member of the International Arbitration practice group.  He has represented clients across a number of industries in international arbitrations under various rules.  He has been recognized by Chambers, Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.

Prior to joining King & Spalding, Jun was based in Hong Kong and worked in the international arbitration groups at Herbert Smith Freehills and Baker Botts.  He was also the founding director of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution in Singapore, an associate at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, and a law clerk for Justice Conchita Carpio Morales at the Supreme Court.

Jun has been teaching international arbitration in the Philippines since 2009.  He is a founding member and a former co-chair of HK45, the HKIAC’s young practitioners’ group. He was also a member of the ICC Taskforce on the New York Convention.

Leandro Angelo Y. Aguirre
Deputy Commissioner, Philippine National Privacy Commission

Leandro Angelo Y. Aguirre is the Deputy Commissioner of the Philippine National Privacy Commission and has served in that role since February 2018.

He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law and his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. He is a member of both the Philippine Bar and the New York State Bar.
He is also member of the academe having taught various subjects in the University of the Philippines College of Law since 2013. He served as an advisor on the bill that eventually became the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

Maria Lourdes P. Lim
Tax Managing Partner, PwC Philippines

Malou leads the tax practice of the Philippine office. She has more than 26 years of professional and extensive experience in providing tax services for various multinational and local companies of different industries such as Financial Services, Real Estate, Consumer & Industrial Products and Services (CIPS), Business Process Outsourcing, Energy, Oil & Gas.

Her core experience includes corporate structuring and taxation, with emphasis on in-bound and out-bound investment planning; crossborder acquisitions; advisory on the application and interpretation of domestic laws on tax, investment, corporate and securities regulations; restructuring/reorganization; mergers & acquisitions; tax due diligence/tax health check review; tax assessments and refund claims.

From April 2001 to December 2002, Malou joined the government upon invitation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue as Technical Consultant for Legal and Operations.

Prior to joining the firm, her other professional experience includes working as an accountant and as a financial analyst.

Maria Rowena Espiritu    
Philippine Country Counsel, IBM Philippines

Maria Rowena Espiritu had been an in-house lawyer for multinational and domestic companies in the Philippines for almost two decades. She was Philippine Country Counsel and Data Protection Officer of IBM Philippines, Incorporated and its related companies before migrating to the US in early 2022. She is now the Contract Manager for Blount County Government in Tennessee, USA.
 
Prior to IBM and Blount County Government, Espiritu was the Legal Affairs Director of Huawei Technologies Phils. for almost five years. She has also been a Resident Agent and Legal Counsel of VEECO APAC, INC. (Philippine Branch) Legal Manager of Directories Philippines Corporation; Assistant Corporate Secretary of Asian Terminals Inc. in previous years.
 
Espiritu holds a Postgraduate Diploma (With Merit) in Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Law from Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom). She also finished various certification courses by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy (Switzerland), namely Advance Course on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property, Advance Course on Copyright and Related Rights and Advance Course on Arbitration and Mediation Procedure. She also holds a Master degree in Business Administration from Ateneo de Manila Graduate School of Business (Philippines). Espiritu finished her Bachelor of Laws from Saint Louis University (Philippines) and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Far Eastern University (Philippines).

Mark Enojo
Head of Compliance - Zone ASEAN
Head of Legal and Compliance - Philippines
Siemens Healthineers
 
Mark Enojo is the Head of Compliance in ASEAN of Siemens Healthineers, a leading publicly listed medical technology company headquartered in Germany.  In this role, he oversees the ASEAN countries and acts as a partner to the business in risk management in the key compliance areas of anti-bribery and corruption, data privacy, anti-trust and competition, and anti-money laundering.  He also serves as the Head of Legal and Compliance and as Data Protection Officer in the Philippines.   He started his career in various law firms: Ponce Enrile Reyes & Manalastas in the Philippines and the Vietnam offices of Kelvin Chia Partnership and Mayer Brown, mainly focusing on M&A and corporate law.  Prior to working for Siemens Healthineers, he was with the business process outsourcing sector through RR Donnelley and then SPi Global (now, Straive). He obtained his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University and where he also serves as a professorial lecturer in the Civil Law and Political Law departments at the School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in the Philippines and previously held a foreign practicing license as a lawyer in Vietnam.  He has been invited to speak in the Philippines on the topics of Business and Human Rights and Compliance.

Teodoro Kalaw IV. C. Arb.
Chartered Arbitrator & President Emeritus, Philippine Institute of Arbitrators

Teddy Kalaw is the first and only Filipino to be installed as a Chartered Arbitrator as well as certified as an Accredited Mediator by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) of the United Kingdom. He is also the first and only Filipino diplomate in both international commercial arbitration and mediation of CIArb and is the only Filipino CIArb Fellow in both the international arbitration and mediation disciplines. He was the President of the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators (PIArb) in 2014 and 2015 and then the Chair of its Board of Trustees from 2016 to 2017. He is presently a President Emeritus of PIArb. He is among the youngest to be elected a Fellow of CIArb, PIArb, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators, and the Asian Institute of Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. since 2017.

Winnie R. Lardizabal-Morales
Deputy General Counsel
ENGIE Asia, Middle East & Africa 

Winnie is the Deputy General Counsel of ENGIE Asia-Pacific Middle East Africa (AMEA) Regional Hub and is currently based in Dubai, U.A.E.  ENGIE is a global leader in the fields of electricity generation and distribution, renewable energy, natural gas, and client solutions, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, France. Winnie has been with ENGIE since 2015, starting with ENGIE Philippines as senior legal counsel, then transferring to ENGIE Asia-Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand and later on moving to Singapore where she held the role of Deputy General Counsel-Interim General Counsel of ENGIE Asia Pacific, before assuming her new role in the ENGIE Dubai office.  Prior to joining ENGIE, Winnie started as an associate/senior associate in various top tier law firms in the Philippines. She then became the head of legal and compliance of CalEnergy RHQ (now, Berkshire Hathaway Energy) and thereafter assumed the role of General Counsel of Enfinity Asia-Pacific RHQ, both of which were engaged in the management, operation, maintenance, acquisition, and development of renewable energy projects in Asia-Pacific. Winnie’s legal practice is primarily focused on corporate/commercial, tax, and power/energy law related matters.

Valeriano del Rosario
Managing Partner, VERALaw

Valeriano has extensive education and business experience in the United States and Europe. His clients who are doing business in the Philippines, include companies from the U.S., Europe and Japan. 
Valeriano del Rosario is a specialist shipping lawyer based in the Philippines. He obtained his LLM in shipping law and policy from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology in 1983. He started his shipping career in London at Sinclair Roche and Temperley. He was trained in admiralty law and ship finance. He returned to the Philippines in 1987 and joined the law firm, VeraLaw, which his father established soon after the War in 1949. In the Philippines, Valeriano concentrated in both contentious as well as non-contentious matters. He continued his shipping practice, but also branched out to construction arbitration. On the non-contentious side Valeriano has advised overseas clients on mining law and cross border transactions.
 
Valeriano was president of the Maritime Law Association of the Philippines in 2000. He has been elected as an independent director of the MOL Magsaysay Maritime Academy since 2018. 

And many more...