INTEGRATED BAR OF THE PHILIPPINES: August 2009

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION

OF SOUTH COTABATO[1]

By: Judge Romerico P. Vencer (+)

A Bar Association in South Cotabato was organized before the province of South Cotabato was created. Lawyers who were from Tacurong and Isulan and other towns down to the coast, including Maitum, met in Marbel, Koronadal, South Cotabato on March 02, 1965, adopted a constitution and by-laws for a bar association and elected their first president, Atty. Eugenio M. Millado. At that time, the district judge, Hon. Antonio Lacson, had just died, and the new association was just on time to extend its sympathies to the family. For a while cases were heard by Hon. Juan Sarenas of the Court of First Instance of Cotabato, whenever he would come down to the South. The session hall was in the municipal building of general Santos. Meanwhile, Atty. Manuel O. Javellana succeeded Atty. Millado as president and after Atty. Javellana, the presidents were Attys. Fidel P. Purisima, Atty. Romerico P. Vencer and Atty. Cormelio T. Falgui, in order stated. When the Integrated Bar of the Philippines came into being, no elections had been held for several years by the South Cotabato Bar Association, which by that time was already, properly, the South Cotabato Bar Association, as the province of South Cotabato was created in 1967. The lawyers of the Upper Valley organized an association in Koronadal, the capital which was named the Capitol Lawyers League. The members of these associations merged to compose the membership of the IBP, South Cotabato Chapter.
While they existed, the bar associations in South Cotabato were hampered by the distances that separated the members from each other, and general meetings were sometimes in General Santos and at other times in Marbel, Koronadal. Its main utility was to enable the lawyers and the members of the bench to meet occasionally and consider and solve the problems affecting the administration of justice. The association also attended to providing limited number of books for their library and securing donations to provide the court rooms with the needed pieces of furniture. The induction programs and the meetings also were occasions for pleasant diversions which kept relationships refreshed in understanding and harmony. The courtroom was transferred to a building in the Dadiangas South Elementary School during the incumbency of Hon. Judge Jesus Quintillan and remains there when the Hon. Judge Abelardo Aportadera followed him for a short while, and it was still there when Hon. Pedro Samson C. Animas arrived. However, a courthouse had been built already in its present site. A ceremony for laying its cornerstone was held on February 27, 1965, but actual transfer to it was done until the time of Judge Animas, due to the delay in completing water and light installations. Preparatory to the formal organizations of South Cotabato Chapter of the IBP, Hon. Andres Lorenzo, Presiding Judge of the City Court, Branch III, acted as chairman to preside over the first election, which elected Atty. Augustus D, Velarde as the first president. The rest is contemporary history.

[1] Adopted from the Directory of Lawyers and a Souvenir Program (1984).

INTEGRATED BAR OF THE PHILIPPINES

OF THE PHILIPPINES

Friday, August 28, 2009

NATIONAL LAW WEEK