Noy classmate to be next presidential legal counsel?

MANILA, Philippines - A classmate of President Aquino from grade school to college at the Ateneo de Manila University may be the next chief presidential legal counsel, replacing Eduardo de Mesa who was transferred to a government-owned and controlled corporation.

Sources said Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, who took up economics – just like Aquino – as his pre-law course, is a shoo-in for the position.

De Mesa, who has been with the Aquino administration since the Chief Executive assumed office in June 2010, is a director of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

Caguioa is a senior partner of the Caguioa and Gatmaytan law office. He passed the Bar in 1986 after finishing law at the Ateneo in 1985.

He joined SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan in 1986 and was a partner from 1994 to February 2007.

His father was the late Court of Appeals justice Eduardo Caguioa.

He also taught at the Ateneo and San Sebastian College.

Caguioa has been cited as a leading Philippine lawyer in the Dispute Resolution field by Chambers & Partners in its 2010 and 2011 Asia-Pacific publications.

He specializes in litigation and arbitration. He has devoted much of his career to civil and commercial litigation before courts and quasi-judicial bodies of all levels, and to arbitration before various arbitration bodies.

According to his law office’s website, Caguioa has also “actively practiced before the different levels of the prosecutorial system, and has acted as private prosecutor or defense counsel before the regular courts and the Sandiganbayan.”