Details of participating speakers will be updated shortly. 

For the latest agenda, please contact Marianne Tocmo at marianne.tocmo@thomsonreuters.com or call +63 (2) 789 5095.

Guests-of-Honour

Hon. Maria Leonor “Leni” Gerona Robredo

Vice President

Republic of the Philippines

Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo is the 14th Vice President of the Philippines. As a human rights lawyer, she dedicated her life to public service, representing those who have no means of defending themselves. Months after the death of her husband Secretary Jesse M. Robredo in 2012, she was urged by the people of the Third District of Camarines Sur to run as their representative in the House of Representatives. She ran and won the congressional seat in 2013 by a landslide. She served for one term as District Representative before she ran for the Vice Presidency in the 2016 elections.

During her stint as Representative of Camarines Sur, she worked with fellow lawmakers to pass seven bills into law. Some of these were the Graphic Health Warnings Act, Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act of 2015, and Open Highschool System Act. She was also the Vice Chairman of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the Committee on Revision of Laws. She also was a member of the Committees on Appropriations, Bicol Recovery and Economic Development, Climate Change, Human Rights, Land Use, Local Government, People’s Participation, Rural Development, Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, Welfare of Children, and Women and Gender Equality where she actively lobbied for bills in favor of her advocacies.

As Vice President, she introduced two major programs. Angat Buhay, a program geared towards raising the quality of life of every Filipino family. The five key advocacy areas of the program are nutrition and food security, universal healthcare, education, rural development, and women empowerment; and Istorya ng Pag-asa, a program that aims to spread hope and positivity by featuring extraordinary stories of ordinary Filipinos through words and portraits shown at events, exhibits, and social media.

Salvador Panelo

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and Presidential Spokesperson

Republic of the Philippines

Atty. Salvador S. Panelo is the Presidential Spokesperson and concurrently Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Prior to that, he had an illustrious career as a private law practitioner with expertise in constitutional, criminal and remedial law. He was known for handling controversial and celebrated cases. He was also a professor of law at the Centro Escolar University, School of Law, University of the East, College of Law since 2003 and currently on leave at the College of Law, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.

Atty. Panelo finished elementary school at the Murphy Elementary School and high school at the Roosevelt Memorial High School (AY 1959-1962).  He graduated at the University of Nueva Caceres with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science.  Thereafter, he obtained a degree in law at the University of the Philippines.

He is married to Dr. Araceli Abrogina - Panelo—a highly regarded and a leading diabetologist in the country.  She is the Chairman of the Institute for Studies on Diabetes Foundation, Inc. (ISDFI), and a member of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the East.

Atty. Panelo is a member and/or officer of various organizations, including the following: Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Quezon City Chapter (Lifetime Member); Sigma Rho Fraternity, U.P. College of Law (Member); Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity Nationalism, Inc. or MABINI (Member); Kapisanan ng Makabagong Kabataang Pilipino or KMKP (Founding Chairman, 1970 – 1972); and Brotherhood of Mother’s Kids or BROMOKI—a spiritual group (Secretary-General).

Sec. Panelo was in-house counsel for United Laboratories for eleven (11) years. He had hosted various radio and television programs, including: “Magmahalan Tayo,” Eagle Broadcasting Corp. (1987 – 1999); “Broadcaster’s Bureau,” DWBR (2001 – 2002); “Pasada Sais Trenta,” (co-hosted with Pinky Webb, 2005); “By Request” (a musical show co-hosted with the late Aliw Awardee Arthur Manuntag, 2007 – 2008); and Counterpoint (a political commentary program, 2009 – 2010).  He hosted a Sunday night radio program at DZRJ and is currently on leave.  Further, he has been a columnist of Counterpoint, RJ TV, “OpinYon,” a weekly newspaper, and “Karapatang Batas ATBP,” Pilipino Mirror. 

 His hobbies includes growing bonsai and he has a 700 square meter bonsai garden in his residence. He plays the piano and is a song writer. By way of helping certain organizations raising funds for their various social activities to help the poor, the victims of calamities and war and children with special needs, he has held musical concerts. 

Speakers / Panelists

Arsenio Balisacan, PhD, Chairman, Philippine Competition Commission

Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan is an economist and academic serving as the first chairperson of the Philippine Competition Commission. On secondment from the University of the Philippines (UP) where he is Professor of Economics, he served as the Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and, concurrently, Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority from 2012 to 2016.

Previous to his Cabinet appointment, he was Dean of the UP School of Economics, Director-Chief Executive of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, and Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture. Before joining the UP faculty in 1987, he was Research Fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu and Economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. 

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Hawaii and an MS degree in Agricultural Economics from UP Los Baños.

Nilo T. Divina, Managing Partner, DivinaLaw

Nilo T. Divina is a seasoned corporate and banking lawyer.

As managing partner of DivinaLaw, he has led the growth of the Firm which began with 5 lawyers in 2006 and currently has nearly 60 lawyers.

Nilo was formerly Executive Vice-President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of one of the leading banks in the Philippines.

Nilo is Dean of the Faculty of Civil of the University of Santo Tomas since 2009. He also teaches in the University of the Philippines College of Law. He authored two books in Commercial Law and is a sought-after bar reviewer and legal consultant.

Cheng Kwee Chua, Regional Director of Sales, Asia, Thomson Reuters

Cheng Kwee have been running the Asia market business for Thomson Reuters Elite for the last 11 years. Prior to moving into the Sales role, Cheng Kwee have been managing a team of consultants working on implementation solutions for the Asia Pacific market – including Elite 3E & MatterSphere products. He has been working in the legal industry in various capacity since 1996. He has also worked in law firm which has a sizable litigation management team and have used litigation management system to assist in e-discovery, case tracking and issues management.

Cheng Kwee has led many in house seminar panels and presentation, focusing on how In house legal team can drive innovation and improve efficiencies, as well as how they can show case value to their organisation.

Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, Cheng Kwee was managing the business of law for several law firms in Australia. In his last capacity as the Chief Operating Officer, he was responsible in driving operational efficiencies and marketing efforts for the law firm. Prior to moving to Australia in 1996, Cheng Kwee was managing his own IT consulting firm focusing on Infrastructure design, networking and Software turnkey solutions delivery. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration and is also a Prince2 Project Management Practitioner.

Abigail Hope Serrano, Senior Manager, Strategic Planning & Overseas Legal Support, SCG Legal Counsel Limited 

Abigail Hope Serrano leads strategic planning and enterprise-wide digital transformation projects at SCG Legal Counsel Limited (SCG Legal) in Bangkok, Thailand. SCG Legal is the Group In-house Counsel of the Siam Cement Group (SCG), one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Thailand and in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining SCG Legal, Abigail started her career in 2005, as a patent attorney at Villaraza & Anganco Law Offices.

Abigail received her Master of Laws from Kyushu University School of Law on full scholarship. She also holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. She completed her law degree at the University of the Philippines, where she graduated 8^th in her class. She was admitted to the Philippine bar in 2006 and is a member of the UP Portia Sorority.

Sharon Lim, AVP-HR, Legal & Compliance, COL Financial Group Inc.

Sharon Lim is an Assistant Vice President for COL Financial Group, Inc. – the country’s leading online stockbroker and first fund supermarket. For the past few years, as first the officer-in-charge and later as the head of the Legal, Compliance, and Human Resource Departments of the Company, Sharon has been instrumental in both navigating the complexities of the compliance landscape, and in explaining legal realities to personnel within the organization. A certified Associated Person by the Securities and Exchange Commission, she also holds a Master of Laws from the National University of Singapore (Corporate and Financial Services Law) and an LLB from the University of the Philippines.

Mark Enojo, Head of Legal and Compliance, Philippines, Siemens Healthineers

Mark Enojo is the Head of Legal and Compliance in the Philippines of Siemens Healthineers, a leading medical technology company headquartered in Germany. He started his career locally in 2004 at the PECABAR Law Offices. He then moved to Vietnam in 2006, successively working at Kelvin Chia Partnership and Mayer Brown. In 2012, he returned to the Philippines and, prior to his current role, he gained legal operations and in-house counsel experience in the business process outsourcing sector from RR Donnelley and SPi Global. He obtained his A.B. Political Science and Juris Doctor degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and where he also serves as a professorial lecturer in Special Issues in International Law 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.

Jazel Calvo-Cariño, Country Legal Head – Philippines, Sanofi – Aventis

Jazel Calvo-Cariño is currently the Country Head of Legal for Sanofi Philippines. She acts as business partner to the consumer healthcare, pharma and vaccines units. Her job is to manage all legal affairs of the affiliate and sit on the country management committee to participate in strategic risk assessment. She was included in both the 2018 and 2019 edition of The Legal 500’s GC Powerlist: Southeast Asia.

Before joining Sanofi, Jazel started her career in a corporate law firm, before shifting in-house as a banking lawyer for Deutsche Bank AG then Macquarie Group.

Jazel has an undergraduate degree in Social Sciences, major in Sociology. She graduated in 2001 and went straight to Ateneo Law School, where she completed her Juris Doctor in 2005 and was admitted to the bar in 2006.

Guadalupe Lyn Vergel De Dios, Head of the Regional Compliance of North Asia, China and the Philippines, MoneyGram International

 Atty. Guadalupe Lyn P. Vergel de Dios is the Head of the Regional Compliance for North Asia, China & Philippines of MoneyGram International and its Compliance Officer for Privacy and Member of the Board of Directors of its Philippine subsidiary. 

Guada has also served as the deputy head of a local bank, and Legal Counsel, Assistant Corporate Secretary, and Compliance Manager of an insurance, mutual fund, asset management and pre-need companies.  

She is a licensed lawyer and worked as an associate at law firms in the Philippines and at Mayer Brown JSM in Thailand. She also worked as a Securities Counsel at the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission. 

She is currently a member of the Faculty of the School of Law and Governance of the University of Asia and the Pacific. She also serves as the Internal Vice President of the Good Governance Advocates and Practitioners of the Philippines and Corporate Secretary of the Association of Remittance Company Compliance Officers of the Philippines. 

Guada obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (cum laude) and Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines.

Manuel Alberto Colayco, FVP – Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc.

Manuel Alberto R. Colayco is the First Vice President - Chief Legal and Compliance Officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. Mr. Colayco has practiced in the areas of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities regulation, corporate and financial restructuring, and litigation. His previous work experience includes: General Counsel for AGP International Holdings Ltd. and Atlantic, Gulf & Pacific Company of Manila, Inc. from August 2013 to December 2014; Executive Director and Assistant General Counsel of J.P.  Morgan Chase Bank N.A. from July 2010 to August 2013; and Vice President and Legal Counsel of DKR Oasis (Hong Kong) LLC, a private investment management firm, from August 2007 until March 2010. He was an Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP from 2000 to 2007, and at Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles from 1996 to 2000. 

Mr. Colayco earned his undergraduate and Juris Doctor degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University. He also has a Master of Laws degree from the New York University School of Law.

Ma. Patricia S. Encarnacion-Foria, Vice President and Head of Legal and Compliance/Data Protection Officer, Insurance Company of North America (a Chubb Company)

Ma. Patricia S. Encarnacion-Foria is the Vice President and Head of Legal and Compliance and concurrently, the Data Protection Officer, of Insurance Company of North America (a Chubb Company). She served as the compliance officer of Chubb APAC Shared Services Unit when it was established in the Philippines in 2007.

Pat chairs the Data Privacy Council for the Non-Life Insurance Sector, which was created under the auspices of the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association, Inc. (PIRA). She is also a member of the PIRA Legal Committee and Technical Working Group on the Amendments of the Insurance Code. She has lectured on insurance law at the U.P. Law Center Paralegal Training Program. She started her legal career in government service as Confidential Attorney at the Court of Appeals and later as Solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor General. Before joining Chubb in 2007, she was First Vice President and Head of Legal and Claims of now Sunlife Grepa and Chief Legal Officer and Assistant Corporate Secretary of now Mapfre Insular.

Pat received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1983 and Bachelor of Laws degree in 1987 both from the University of the Philippines. She was admitted to the Philippine bar in 1988. 

Millicent Desiderio-Dime, Director of Legal Services, Regulatory & Compliance Operations – Philippines, Accenture

Miscen Desiderio-Dime is currently the Director of Legal Services, Compliance Operations and Regulatory Affairs for Accenture Inc., the Philippine operating entity of the global IT BPO and Consulting firm. Concurrently, she is the Corporate Secretary of Accenture and its various subsidiaries in the Philippines, the Philippine Ethics & Compliance Lead as well as Accenture’s Philippine Data Privacy Officer. She has been with the company for over 7 years and is the Senior Legal Business Partner for the Philippines.

Miscen has over two decades of legal experience and began her career in the prestigious Ponce Enrile Reyes and Manalastas Law Office (PECABAR) under the tutelage of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and the late Senator Renato Cayetano as a litigation associate. 

In 2018, the Asian Legal Business Philippine Law Awards recognized Miscen’s performance at the helm of Accenture’ local legal team by awarding her “In House Counsel of the Year”.

This year, Miscen and her team received multiple recognitions from the National Association of Data Protection Officers of the Philippines (NADPOP), among others, the coveted Gold Datos Privados Award for Corporate Compliance in the individual category for Miscen and another Gold Award for her team.

Miscen also received the prestigious “Woman Lawyer of the Year” award at the Asian Legal Business South East Asia Law Awards 2019 in Singapore besting top female lawyers in the region.

 Katrina Erika Zialcita Alday, Counsel, South & Southeast Asia, PMFTC Inc. 

Katrina is currently Counsel of PMFTC Inc., Philip Morris International’s Affiliate in the Philippines.

Before joining PMFTC Inc. in 2015, Katrina was an Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Executive Secretary, Office of the President of the Philippines (2003-2007) and was responsible for the representing the Office of the President in the Committee on Tariff and Related Matters and the Technical Committee on WTO Matters. Katrina drafted executive issuances and proclamations, contracts, instruments of ratification of international agreements (i.e., Regional Trade Agreements) and prepared legal opinions, memoranda and briefs for the President of the Philippines and the Executive Secretary on arbitration matters, budgetary matters, international agreements, treaties and executive agreements. Katrina was also the representative and/or member of various bodies and committees under the Office of the President such as: the Bids and Awards Committee, Committee on Tariff and Related Matters and Technical Committee on WTO Matters, Presidential Committee on Honours and State Decorations. 

From 2007 to 2015, Katrina worked in Vietnam in one of the leading law firms, Vietnam International Law Firm (VILAF) and her practice areas  included mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, inbound investments and company establishment, labour, intellectual property, arbitration, international trade, and all matters relating to corporate and commercial issues, and advised clients from various sectors and industries such as food and beverage, construction, tobacco, pharmaceutical, airline, logistics and insurance. 

 Katrina received her Juris Doctor Degree at the Ateneo School of Law in 2002 and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in March 2003. She obtained her Masters in Law (LLM), International Legal Studies Georgetown University Law Center in 2005 and received a distinction on World Trade Organization (WTO) Studies. Katrina also previously held a foreign practicing license as a lawyer in Vietnam.