Former SC Associate Justice Brion elected director of Manila Hotel
Retired Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Arturo D. Brion has been elected as a director of the Manila Hotel during its stockholders’ meeting held on Wednesday, September 6, at the Manila Hotel.
Justice Brion writes a weekly column – The Legal Front – that comes out every Wednesday in the Manila Bulletin.
He was also appointed dean of the College of Law
of San Sebastian College-Recoletos in Manila beginning the first trimester of academic year 2017-2018.
Brion was among the nominees of the Judicial and Bar Council to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court left by the successive retirements of Associate Justices Romeo Callejo, Sr., Cancio Garcia, and Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez. On March 17, 2008, he was named to the Supreme Court by President Macapagal-Arroyo to succeed Justice Sandoval-Gutierrez.
Brion was associate justice of the nation’s highest court for eight years from March 17, 2008 until his retirement on December 29, 2016. Within those years, he was the chairman of the Bar Examinations and member of various internal committees of the High Tribunal.
He was a bar topnotcher placing first during the 1974 Bar with a grade of 91.65 percent.
Besides serving the Supreme Court, Brion was appointed associate justice of the Court of Appeals from 2003 to 2006.
He was secretary of Labor and Employment in 2006-2008; and Foreign Affairs undersecretary in 2002-2003, heading under then Secretary Blas Ople the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Overseas Absentee Voting Secretariat. He also handled special projects at the DFA.
He served as undersecretary of Labor and Employment in 2001-2002 under Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and headed the DOLE’s Labor Relations Cluster, prepared labor standard decisions, and represented the Philippines in various international conferences on labor relations, migration and overseas employment.
He practiced law in Canada (19921995) serving as Solicitor in the Management Board Secretariat and the Ministry of Labor, Province of Ontario. As Senior Partner of the Siguion Reyna, Montecillo and Ongsiako Law Offices (1975-1982; 1995-2001, senior partner), he was also engaged mostly in labor law practice.
His experience in the academe includes being a faculty member at the Ateneo de Manila University, College of Law (1976-1981, 1986, 1995-1997, 2015 to the present); at the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of the Philippines (2001-2002); and at the Institute of Law of the Far Eastern University (2005-2006). He is presently a member of the Board of Regents, Universidad de Manila.
Among his achievements as a writer are as Editor-in-Chief of the Ateneo Law Journal, 1974; and author of an emerging law bestseller, “A Judicial Journey” (2017).
Brion was born on December 29, 1946 in the city of Manila, to Edon B. Brion (a retired trial court judge) and Laura S. Dizon. He grew up and undertook his primary, secondary and part of his tertiary studies in San Pablo City, Laguna.
He obtained his Bachelor of Arts, major in Mathematics, from San Pablo Colleges in San Pablo City, Laguna, in 1970. He earned his Bachelor of Laws from Ateneo de Manila University Law School in 1974, graduating as cum laude and class valedictorian.
He also earned a Master of Laws, with concentration in Labor and Employment Law, from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1994. He obtained a Bachelor of Laws Equivalency Programme from the same law school. He was admitted to the Law Society of Upper Canada and to the practice of law in the province of Ontario in 1992.
Brion has worked from associate attorney to senior partner levels in various law offices. He was the director of the Institute of Labor and Manpower Studies from 1982 to 1984. He served as an Assemblyman in the Philippine National Assembly from 1984 to 1986. He was appointed as Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Labor and Employment during the same period.