DATE
Wednesday, 23 May 2018
TIME
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
 

VENUE
Makati Diamond Residences

118 Legazpi Street, Legazpi Village, Makati City 1229 Philippines

 

 Overview:

Looking back to 2017, there had been significant developments on Philippine Key Laws which are mainly the Philippine Data Privacy Law, Philippine Competition and the newly implemented Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or known as the TRAIN Law.  Further amendments on regulations were released by its respective governing bodies, with this companies operating in the Philippines are faced to review each law and analyze how it will impact on their corporate legal departments and to the greater organization. 

Target Audience:

  • In-House Counsels 
  • General, Legal and Corporate Counsels
  • Chief Legal/Ethics/Integrity/Risk Officers
  • Heads of Corporate Legal, Compliance and Governance
  • Corporate Legal and Compliance Directors, Managers and Executives 
  • Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management 
  • CEOs, CFOs and Company Secretaries 
  • In-House Legal Advisers and Consultants 
  • Private Practice and Corporate Law Firms
  • Information Security and Technology Providers 
  • Consultants and Experts from Corporate and Financial Services, Legal and Compliance Industry

Why you should attend:

  • Key insight into the latest legal updates on the laws under Philippine corporate compliance
  • Networking opportunities with leading in-house legal counsels and key decision makers
  • In-depth panel discussion sessions with some of the most distinguished corporate counsels in the region
  • VIP networking luncheon and refreshments

Download the Forum Agenda, here

For more information, please contact Amanda Murillo at amanda.murillo@thomsonreuters.com  or call +(632) 789 53 28

 

Keynote Speakers

Atty. Ivy D. Patdu
Deputy Privacy Commissioner
National Privacy Commission
 
Ivy D. Patdu, Deputy Commissioner of the National Privacy Commission, is a physician, a lawyer and a health privacy advocate. She has built her professional career by bridging the disciplines of medicine and law, specializing primarily in Health Law and Privacy.
 
She has been involved in policy development and health research, contributing to the discourse on Health Information Privacy through her published works and as a member of National Health Data Privacy Experts Group of the National eHealth Program. She was tapped primarily to assist in the development of the “Privacy Guidelines for the Philippine Health Information Exchange”, one of the first sectoral privacy regulations in the country. Before being appointed to the National Privacy Commission, she served as consultant for privacy and other legal issues for both government and private sector.  
 
She worked with the University of the Philippines Manila National Telehealth Center in developing legal frameworks for Telemedicine, Health Information Privacy and other eHealth initiatives. She also practiced as medicolegal, handling risk management for healthcare providers and serving as lawyer for doctors and hospitals. 
 
She graduated with honors from the Philippine Science High School before obtaining her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine under the Integrated Liberal Arts and Medicine Program. She then obtained her Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, where she graduated with Scholastic Second Honors, ranking 10th in her graduating class. She eventually became chosen to participate in the Global Digital Leader’s Exchange, as part of the US Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program. She has been member of the academe since 2011, teaching Legal Medicine in the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, and San Beda College of Law, Alabang.
 
Forum Speakers
 
Atty. Enrique V. dela Cruz jr.
Partner
DivinaLaw
 
Atty. Enrique dela Cruz is the youngest Senior Partner in DivinaLaw. He has extensive experience spanning almost seventeen (17) years in international and domestic arbitration dealing with commercial and construction disputes, civil, criminal and intra-corporate litigation, local government and local taxation, government contracts and regulations, election law, and data privacy. 
 
Prior to joining DivinaLaw, Atty. dela Cruz was a Senior Partner and Managing Partner at the Ponce Enrile Reyes & Manalastas Law Office. He is also concurrently serving as a Board Member in the Province of Bulacan.
 
He was also recently appointed to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines International Law and International Affairs Committee.
 
Atty. dela Cruz holds a Master of Laws degree, with a major in International and Comparative Business Law (with Distinction) from the London Metropolitan University in the UK, as a Chevening scholar. He also obtained a Masters Degree in International Trade Law at the University College London, likewise as a Chevening scholar. He also has a Masters in Public Management from the Ateneo School of Government.
 
He received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law. 
 
Atty. dela Cruz is a member of the London Court of International Arbitration. He is also the National Secretary of the National Movement of Young Legislators of the Philippines (NMYL). 
 
Atty. Edsel F. Tupaz
Partner
Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra
 
Edsel F. Tupaz, is a Partner of Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra. A dual-qualified lawyer in the Philippines and the US, Edsel’s practice focuses on infrastructure law, public policy, regulatory affairs, and international and comparative law.
 
Edsel was head of the right-of-way acquisition and enforcement division at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and a member of the DPWH Central Office Bids and Awards Committee for Civil Works. He intermittently served as officer-in-charge (OIC) Undersecretary for Legal Affairs and Priority Projects and OIC Director for Legal Services of the department. He provided advisory work and led right-of-way acquisition for priority projects under the Php 8-9 trillion (US$ 160-200 billion) Build Build Build program of the Philippine government, the most ambitious infrastructure program in Philippine history. Edsel has counseled on general infrastructure law and policy, procurement, project development, and contract administration in a variety of areas, including public private partnership (PPP) transactions, concession agreements, and toll operation agreements.
 
Upon admission to the Philippine Bar, Edsel worked as an attorney at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan. Thereafter, he clerked for the Honorable Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. and Justice Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez of the Philippine Supreme Court. He later served as director of a legislative office at the Philippine Senate. He designed and taught a course on International Development Law and Policy at the New England School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts, and has since taught in several law schools in the Philippines. In 2008-2009, Edsel became Managing Technical Editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal.
 
A member of the Philippine Bar and the New York Bar, Edsel received his Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (Honors Program) and Juris Doctor from the Ateneo de Manila University.

 

Mon Abrea
Founding President
Asian Consulting Group

The bestselling author of “Got A Question about Taxes? Ask the Tax Whiz!” The Philippine Tax Whiz MON ABREA, is the Founding President of the Asian Consulting Group (ACG), a tax advisory firm that helps taxpayers pay the right taxes, and the Center for Strategic Reforms of the Philippines (CSR Philippines), the advocacy partner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on tax education and reform. Recognized as one of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World, Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM), and a Distinguished Bedan in the field of Accounting & Taxation, he also founded the Tax Whiz Academy which provides tax seminars, a mobile app and tax publications such as the newly launched TRAIN Handbook featuring 100 questions & answers about the new tax law and regulations. Follow him on social media at @askthetaxwhiz

 

Lawrence Biscocho
Tax Partner
PwC Philippines
 
Lawrence Biscocho is a Tax Partner of PwC Philippines since 2012.With over 18 years of experience in tax advisory and advocacy services, he specialises in tax structuring, mergers and acquisitions consulting, international tax services, and tax litigation. He started his career with the firm in 1998 and gained wide experience in advising clients in major tax areas. Having undertaken complex international tax planning projects, he has developed specific skills and in-depth expertise in the field of cross-border tax planning and international taxation, providing advice to major inbound and outbound investments in different industries including a number of power plant privatization projects. He is a much-sought after speaker in various tax seminars for clients and professional organizations. Lawrence earned both his accounting and law degrees from San Beda College in Manila. He completed the Management Development Program at the Asian Institute of Management Business School where he was awarded the Superior Performance Award.
 

Geronimo Sy
former Asec the Department of Justics - Office for Competition

Geronimo L. Sy is a lawyer with specialization in competition policy and law. He established the Philippines’ first Office for Competition under the Department of Justice as Assistant Secretary and headed it from 2011 to 2015. He was instrumental in the crafting and shepherding into law of the Philippine Competition Act. Internationally, he served as Chair of the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition from 2013 to 2014. In July 2014, he successfully led the Philippine delegation in the Peer Review on Competition Law and Policy in Geneva, Switzerland. He was the Convenor of the APEC 2015 Competition Policy and Law Group (CPLG). Among the major cases he handled were cartels in the rice and garlic industries, abuses in the telco, transport and energy sectors. He obtained his Bachelor of Science Major in Management Engineering and Juris Doctor Degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University, his Master of Arts in Public Management from the University of the Philippines. At present, he is a Doctoral candidate in Public Administration at the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance. 

Alizedney Ditucalan
Dean / Academic Head
Mindanao State Univerity - College of Law

Prof. Alizedney M. Ditucalan is the incumbent Dean of Mindanao State University College of Law and the Managing Partner of Subejano and Ditucalan. As Young Leader’s Program scholar, he pursued his Master of Laws in International Economic and Business Law focusing on Competition Law at the Graduate School of Law of Kyushu University. Part of his LL.M thesis, which is about the institutional design of Philippine Competition Law, was published in the Journal of Law and Legislation of Korea Legislation Research Institute (KLRI). It is also coming out in an upcoming book on Competition Law in Asia, a collaboration of Asian competition law scholars. Dean Ditucalan is currently writing his dissertation for his Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) at Kyushu University as the first Filipino long-term scholar of JICA. His dissertation is on disruptive innovation and competition law enforcement. 

Francis Euston Acero
Division Chief of the Complaints and Investigation Division
National Privacy Commission 

Mr. Acero holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the Philippines and a Juris Doctor from the Ateneo De Manila University School of Law. Mr. Acero is lawyer, having joined the Philippine Bar in 2008. Mr. Acero is also a member of the faculty of the Far Eastern University Institute of Law and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila Law School. Prior to his most recent stint in government, Mr. Acero was a partner at Abad Alcantara Acero Law from July 2015 to July 2016, where his practice focused on technology, media, and telecommunications. Mr. Acero is a co-founder of Democracy.Net.PH and the Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance, and is part of the policy team of the Philippine chapter of the Internet Society. Mr. Acero has also worked as a member of the Board of Directors and Corporate Secretary of Board of Directors of the Philippine Electronics and Telecommunications Federation. Mr. Acero has appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives on Internet speeds, and has worked on the regulations for the proper measurement of broadband and mobile internet speeds before the National Telecommunications Commission. Mr. Acero was also part of the Senate Technical Working Group on what would become Republic Act No. 10844, which established the Department of Information and Communications Technology. 

Millicent Desiderio-Dime
Head of Legal and Data Privacy Officer
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 Lead as well as Accenture’s Data Privacy Officer.  She has been with the company for over 7 years and is the Senior Legal Business Partner leading over 100 legal professionals in Accenture Philippines. Miscen has over two decades of legal experience, having been admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1997. She spent six formative years of her legal practice in Ponce Enrile Reyes and Manalastas (PECABAR)  as a litigation associate.  As a senior associate, she later moved to Puno & Puno Law Office where she eventually became a Partner in the Commercial, Civil and Labor Litigation division. In 2009 she left Puno and Puno to work for a client, Banco De Oro Unibank as team head for Remedial Management - Asset Recovery and Litigation Unit.  In 2010 she was recruited by the international investment bank Macquarie as Lead Commercial Lawyer of their local legal team which was being formed in Manila. At Macquarie, she concentrated on corporate and contracts skills as her team concentrated on the negotiation, drafting, review and management of commercial contracts with a strong focus on Intellectual Property Law and Information Technology. In 2012 she was tapped to head the Legal Team of Accenture Inc. where she has helped keep the company on even keel to this day as it grew from a little over 20,000 employees when she joined to the 50,000 strong workforce that it is today. Miscen received her Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo in 1996 and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology from the University of Philippines, Diliman in 1991. When she takes off her “lawyer hat”, Miscen is wife to fellow lawyer Ron, mom to two girls Tempest and Tabitha, she is an amateur blogger, aspiring cook and lover of shoes. 

Cecilia Soria
Data Privacy and Technology Law Practitioner
 
Maria Cecilia Soria is a Philippines-licensed lawyer, with core practice in Data Privacy Law. She is one of just a handful of data privacy professionals in the Philippines with a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). The IAPP is the world’s largest global information privacy organization.Since putting up her Data Privacy practice, Cecilia has been helping top Philippine corporations in putting up their privacy management programs. She has spoken on data privacy at several conferences, such as the 2017 Philippine Data Privacy Forum of Asian Legal Business and PH TestCon 2017. She developed and offers the “Data Privacy  Bootcamp,” a training program that equips teams working in data privacy with the knowledge on the compliance requirements and the framework to execute this knowledge within their organization. 
 
Cecilia graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 2006. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Cecille honed her skills in the practice of law as a member of the following law offices: Medialdea Ata Bello and Guevarra Law Offices; SGV & Co. - An Ernst & Young member firm; and Tan Venturanza Valdez Law Offices.
 
She has taken companies public, as well as established mutual funds. She served as Corporate Secretary and Assistant Corporate Secretary of various publicly-listed and public companies, including the country's largest non-bank remittance company as well as one of the fastest-growing thrift banks in the Philippines. Most recently, she served as Assistant Corporate Secretary and Legal Counsel to the Philippines' oldest and best-performing insurance company. From 2013 to 2017, Cecille was part of the digital transformation team of one of the biggest companies in the country.  Since 2012, Cecille has been engaged in advancing the freedoms guaranteed under the Bill of Rights in cyberspace. She was a founding member of Democracy.Net.PH, the group that drafted the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom. The bill was adopted and filed in the Senate by no less than Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.   Her digital rights advocacy has taken her from the halls of Congress to international forums. Cecille spoke at the 2015 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Brazil on digital rights. In 2016, Cecille was part of the delegation of the American Bar Association - Rule of Law Initiative to the 2016 IGF in Mexico.
 

Dr. Marie Karen Jiz M.D., DPBA, FPSA
Data Protection Officer and Director of Clinical Investigations and Analysis Department
The Medical City
 

Dr. Marie Karen Jiz is currently the Data Protection Officer and Director for Clinical Investigation Analysis of the Medical City. Prior to her current post, she was the Patient Conciliation Officer of The Medical City and was the Training Officer of the Department of Anesthesiology of Rizal medical Center. She was the former associate of Jiz Jiz Law firm from 2005-2008 and then an associate of Quasha Ancheta Peña & Nolasco from 2008-2011, and now the managing partner of Jiz Law Offices. She graduated from University of the Philippines in the Visayas earning her Bachelor degree of Science in Biology. And her Bachelor of Laws from University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Law. And her Doctor of Medicine from University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center. 

Roel A. Refran
Chief Operating Officer
Philippine Stock Exchange
 

Atty.  Roel  Arco  Refran  is  the  Chief  Operating  Officer  of  The  Philippine  Stock  Exchange,  Inc.,  (PSE), recognized as the Best Stock Exchange for 2016, 2015 and 2013 by Alpha Southeast Asia Deal Awards. Atty. Refran is the vice-chair of the Philippines’ National Market Practice Group (PH NMPG), and he chairs the Capital Markets Development Committee of Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association.  Atty. Refran is a Professor of Law at Ateneo de Manila University. He was awarded the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of the Philippines (UP) Virata School of Business where he is a Professorial Lecturer 1.   Atty. Refran is a lecturer at De La Salle University College of Law and Adjunct Faculty at the Asian Institute of Management.  Atty. Refran holds an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School (USA) where he  was  a  Fulbright  scholar.  While  at  Emory  University,  Atty.  Refran  worked  at  the  Emory  Center  for Alternative Investments.   He earned his Business Administration and Accountancy degree, magna cum laude, from UP, and his Juris Doctor degree, Second Honors, from Ateneo Law School. He placed 4th in the 1999  bar examinations, and ranked in the top 20 successful examinees in the 1995 CPA licensure examinations. 

Joan De Venecia-Fabul
Vice President and General Counsel
Philex Mining Corporation
 

Joan  de  Venecia-Fabul  is  the  Vice  President  and  General  Counsel  of  listed  company  Philex Mining Corporation. She is also a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines College of Law (UP Law), teaching Public International Law and Agency & Partnership, as well as a regular lecturer in Mandatory Continuing Legal Education seminars, particularly on investor-State arbitration. Prior to joining Philex, Ms. De Venecia-Fabul was the Vice President for Public Relations of the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund. Before that, she was a Senior Associate at SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, where she started her legal career.Ms. De Venecia-Fabul graduated from UP Law in 2005 as class valedictorian and cum laude, and topped the Bar exam that same year. She holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University under a Fulbright grant and full tuition scholarship. 

Jocelyn Villar-Altamira
Head of Corporate Governance and Compliance Office
Manila Electric Company
 

Atty. Jocelyn Villar-Altamira heads the Corporate Governance and Compliance Office (CGCO) of Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), a 115 year old listed company and the largest electric distribution utility in the Philippines with more than 6 million customers and market capitalization of almost USD7.8 Billion. The  CGCO  administers  the  implementation  of  the  Company’s  CG  policies,  goals  and  initiatives  as mandated by the Company’s Board of Directors. It is tasked with developing compliance monitoring and employee training programs, cascading of the CG Manual and Code of Ethics, coordinating whistleblowing investigations of CG violations and submission of CG reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange (SEC and PSE).  It provides board secretarial support to the Company’s subsidiaries, and administers disclosures required to be reported to the SEC and the PSE.  It also provides support  to  the  Company’s  more  than  45,000  common  stockholders  in  relation  to  the  facilitation and delivery of dividends and the issuance and transfer of stock certificates.

From 2016-2017 she served as President of the Good Governance Advocates of the Philippines or GGAPP, an association of ethics, governance and compliance officers mostly from listed public companies, as well as  privately  held  firms,  non-profit  organizations,  faith-based  groups  and  educational  institutions.  Its principal  aim  is  to  empower  and  enhance  the  capacity  of  ethics,  compliance  and  governance  officers through consensus building, research and by engaging regulators and non-government actors in the field of business ethics and corporate governance particularly in policy reform and capability building.

Before joining Meralco, Atty. Altamira was an Assistant Director who headed various offices under the Enforcement, Corporation Finance and Market Regulation departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission.She obtained both her Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Science major in Legal Management degrees from the Ateneo University.

Rhys Alexei Murillo
Corporate Secretary/ Asst. General Manager - Compliance and Legal Affairs
Nissan Philippines Inc.
 

My chosen career path coupled with my training and experiences have consistently driven me towards corporate  practice. Since  working  in  the  legal  profession  for  close  to  12  years,  I’ve  been  given  the opportunity  to  work  with  distinguished  lawyers  of  the  Kapunan  Lotilla  Flores  Garcia  and  Castillo  Law Offices (now Kapunan & Castillo Law Offices) and large corporations such as the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Araneta Group of Companies, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. These experiences coupled with my CPA background, have enabled me to obtain a firm grasp of legal and business frameworks. As a Corporate Lawyer, specializing in Compliance, Commercial Law, Taxation Law, Corporation Law, Legal Audits,  M&A  Deals  and  Negotiations,  General  Taxation  Matters  and  Intellectual  Property  Rights  with exposure to Civil Law and Labor Law litigation, I have learned that one cannot rely merely on the stringent requirements of the law, but must also take into consideration the realities of business in order to strike a balance between what is legally permissible and commercially viable. Specialties:    Accounting    and    Finance,    Contract    Management,    Legal    Due    Diligence, Corporate Housekeeping and Corporate Secretarial Functions, Government and Corporate Compliance, Legal, Civil Law and Labor Law Litigation, Meeting Facilitation, Contract Review, Negotiations, Merger and Acquisition Deals, Tax and Estate planning

 

Macel Estavillo
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
 

Macel  Estavillo  is the current  Vice  President  and  general  counsel of  JG Summit  Holdings,  Inc. Prior to joining JG Summit, Atty Macel was the Executive Vice President and Group Head of RCBC, AVP and global business development of ABS CBN Broadcasting, Chief of Staff of Senator Angara. Assistant Secretary for legal affairs and legislative liason of Dept of Agriculture, Assistant corporate secretary of PNB, associate litigation department of ACCRALAW where she started her legal career. Atty. Macel graduated cum  laude from UP Law  in 1997  and summa cum  laude  under  the bachelor of Science in Business Economics, and the topped the bar exam at 1998. She holds LL.M in Corporate law and graduated cum laude from New York University under a Fullbright scholarship.

 

To Speak At This Event
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Amanda Murillo 
DID: +(632) 789 53 28 
Email: amanda.murillo@thomsonreuters.com

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Pricing
Early Bird Rate (Ends 27 April) - Enjoy 15% Discount!
Inhouse/General Counsel/Compliance       USD 225.00
Law Firms/Service Providers/Consultants  USD 595.00

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Contact
For ​​more ​​information ​​on registration and payment, ​​please ​​contact: ​ 

Taranjit ​Kaur 
Phone: ​​(65) ​​6870 ​3909 
Email: ​​taranjit.kaur@thomsonreuters.com

 

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