Bonachita and Pepito new IBP chapter presidents

CEBU, Philippines - The Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City and Cebu Province Chapters yesterday elected a new set of lawyers to lead the organizations.

Atty. Earl Bonachita was proclaimed president of the Cebu City chapter with 266 votes while his counterpart in the province Atty. Ferdinand “Bong” Pepito, Jr. garnered 148 votes.

Bonachita and Pepito both won by a wide margin against their respective opponents.

Bonachita, an outstanding legal aid lawyer, defeated a three-time recipient of the Young Lawyers Association of Cebu presidential citation award lawyer Ian Anthony Sapayan who only got 170 votes.

Pepito on the other hand bested lawyer Rex Fernandez who only managed to get 94 votes out of the total 252 votes cast. The IBP Cebu province chapter has a total membership of 700 but only 620 are qualified to vote. Out of the qualified voters only 252 lawyers actually cast their votes.

Pepito’s group also swept all the positions in the province chapter. Lawyer Erwin Rommel Heyrosa won as vice president, Atty. Virginia Redelosa as secretary; Atty. Mundlyn Misal-Martin as treasurer; Atty. Gonzalo Malig-on, Jr. as press relation officer; Atty. Ronnie Gocuan as auditor and directors Atty. Ferdinand Dungog, Atty. Winifredo Orcullo, Jr., Atty. Angelito Ortiz, Atty. Joel Seno and Atty. Margarita Yu.

Pepito said under his leadership he will continue subsidizing the 50-percent of the fees for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education for their lawyer-members. IBP-Cebu Province chapter has been doing this for the past three MCLE’s.

Pepito added that under his stewardship, he will also look into the possibility of establishing a lawyers’ cooperative as well as providing health insurance for their members.

In Cebu City chapter, Atty. Mae Elaine Bathan was elected vice president, Atty. Christine Marie Najanro as secretary; Atty. Perpetua Socorro Belarmino as treasurer; Atty. Annabel Pulvera-Page as auditor and  Atty. Piedad “Bingo” Gonzales as press relations officer.

The new board of directors for the city chapter are lawyers Leslie Ann Reyes, Hidelito Pascual , Llewelyn Menchavez , Fillmore Gomos and Emmanuel Jude Bernido.

The city chapter has more than a thousand lawyer-members but only 448 members actually cast their votes

The new set of IBP officials will start their term on April 1, 2011 until March 31, 2013. — /FPL (FREEMAN)