Eugene A. Tan (1943 – 1994)

EUGENE A. TAN,  a human rights lawyer, author, professor of law, National President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, President of the century-old Philippine Bar Association [1], President and Chairman of the Maritime Law Association [2], Founder and First President of the Order of Utopia, a fraternity at the Ateneo law school [3], and conferred the 10 Outstanding Young Persons of the World Meritorious Award in the field of Law, TOYP (1983) [4].  Eugene was responsible for the abolition of boarding fees of air and sea passengers (1989); an increase in death benefits to Filipino seamen from a meager Php 12,000 to today’s Php 250,000; a hike in the basic stipend of policemen (1970).  He questioned the authority of the 1971 Constitutional Convention to adopt the parliamentary form of government (1973) [5]; challenged the legality of Marcos’ Presidential Commitment Order (PCO) (1983) [6]; assailed the legality of the Snap Elections called by Pres. Marcos, together with J.B.L. Reyes and others (1985) [7]; and investigated the Escalante Massacre as member of the fact-finding committee appointed by the Philippine government (1985).  By 1990, Eugene was elected to the presidency of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), and went out of his way to challenge the Supreme Court — by daring to set up the IBP Judicial Commission to investigate judicial abuses, declare IBP independence from the Judiciary, and spurn lawful financial subsidy from the Court.  For his impudence he got an unprecedented slap-down from the Supreme Court, acting as court of first and last instance on a trivial labor grievance matter, through a fact-finding committee composed of three sitting associate justices that denied him the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, and the  right of due process. [8]  On the night of November 14, 1994, Eugene, and his driver, Eduardo Constantino, were forcibly taken from their car by armed men and brought to a desolate area outside Metro Manila where they were executed ‘mafia-style’, thus ending what could have been a life of promise and redemption.

EARLY LIFE and TRIALS 

Eugene was born at the height of the Japanese occupation in the town of Sapi-an, Capiz, to a Chinese immigrant and small store owner, Tan Chun, married to local lass, Fidelina Alvarez.  While a child, Eugene fell victim to a bizarre accident that left him blind in one eye.  His father was serving punishment by whipping a younger brother with a stick when Eugene, who stood behind his father, was accidentally hit in the eye.  Throughout grade school, he endured the discomfort and pain in his left eye.  The eerie look of his whitish pupil made him shy and withdrawn.  An honor student before his accident, he did so poorly in school he almost flunked his sixth grade. [9]

Eugene was only 14 years old when another tragedy struck his family.  The family store burned down in one of the biggest fires to hit Roxas City in May of 1959.  Tan Chun hoped that his basic Php 5,000 policy with Alto Insurance (Php 50,000 in today’s value) could partially bail him out.  After months of waiting, he was finally told that the insurance company had folded up.  Desperate, Tan Chun made a trip to Manila with his son, Eugene to seek an audience with the owner of Alto Insurance.  At an exclusive village in New Manila the owner not only denied them entry, but kept the father and his son out of his residence for an indefinite period of time.  In his memoir Eugene wrote years later, “By God as I looked into Papa’s pathetic eyes, I could have sworn that we were no different from the beggars by the gate of that affluent home. I have seen the cumulative injuries to little people like him who will quietly submit to the humiliation due to lack of education in life and yet the exact measure of injustice and wrong which is imposed upon them by the same system will again prevail unless someone gives them a voice.  I marked that day of reckoning when I vowed to myself to give them their voice.” [10]

EDUCATION     

A beaming Fidelina confers the Magna Cum Laude award to her son, Eugene, during the commencement exercises at CPC in Roxas City.

Eugene graduated high school as salutatorian; and earned his Liberal Arts degree as valedictorian magna cum laude, missing a summa cum laude due to lack of residence. He was in addition the president of the Supreme Student Council, editor-in-chief of the school paper, champion orator, and chess champion who represented his province Capiz in the Western Visayas Chess Tournament in 1962.

His academic achievements did not go unnoticed: He won a full scholarship at the Ateneo Law School in Manila.  At around this time, Eugene underwent four costly surgeries to reduce the excruciating pain in his damaged eye which caused him much inconvenience.  To read his law books for long periods, Eugene needed to contort his reading position just to vary the angle of his eyesight.

After the first two operations, he noted lapses in his memory due to the effect of the general anesthesia, a fatal flaw to a student preparing to take the bar exam.  On his third operation he was told by Dr. Gemeliano Ocampo that without a general anesthesia, the pain would be unendurable. “Doc, if the pain is unbearable, I will pass out anyway.”  The doctors injected only a local anesthesia on his eyelid and used a scalpel around the eyeball.  Eugene mercifully passed out.

He graduated Law with top honors as valedictorian.  At first Eugene planned to rest a year then vie for the Top Ten in the bar exams. However, in that particular year, the Supreme Court announced a new policy that it would not publicize the Top Ten bar topnotchers to prevent crass commercialism.  Since the bar exam only entailed passing and not competing for the Top Ten, Eugene decided to take the exam right away despite its threat to his health.  Because of the tremendous strain on his only good eye, he was forced to finish each of the exam in one hour instead of the customary two and a half hours, because his good eye was too exhausted to continue.

But then the Supreme Court went back on its word and published the rankings of bar examinees that year, without Eugene in the Top Ten.  He asked the Supreme Court to nullify his exam where he was the 14th bar topnotcher so that he can retake it and vie for higher honors.  The justices of the Court gave the young lawyer a tongue-lashing and ordered him to take his oath. [9]

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Eugene started his legal profession in 1968 as a junior lawyer at Ross, Selph, Salcedo, Del Rosario, Bito and Misa. The following year, in behalf of his fellow constituents, he sued the City of Roxas questioning the constitutionality of a city ordinance which imposed boarding fees and on sea and air passengers.  The ordinance was later declared unconstitutional.  In 1970, he also successfully filed a suit in court on behalf of the city policemen to interpret the provisions on the salary subsidy of Police Act of 1966.  He won the mandamus action which eventually benefited all policemen throughout the country.

Although, Eugene worked full time in Metro Manila, he maintained his political ties by establishing his residence in Roxas City, Capiz.  In 1971, he ran for the Constitutional Assembly representing the first district of Capiz. A neophyte among the most experienced in politics, Eugene’s first attempt at public office was a dismal failure.  He thought that the election was devoid of the usual partisan politics.  Although he lost the election he became the legal and technical counsel to 3 members of the assembly.  Throughout the annals of the country’s fledgling political history, the 1973 Constitution was regarded to be the most controversial and irreparably tainted charter.  “When the Constitution was passed by the convention and when it was ‘ratified’ by the people in a referendum or…plebiscite, the acts of the delegates approving the Constitution were done under duress and the people’s acquiescence to it was not only fraudulently done, it was coerced by the administrators of martial rule,” added Sen. Aquilano Pimentel, a delegate then representing Mizamis Occidental [11].

In August 1, 1976, Eugene and law school classmate Ignacio S. Sapalo decided to form their partnerships, known as the Tan & Sapalo Law Offices, [12] then at the Filcapital Building (now Security Bank Bldg.) along the commercial district of Ayala Avenue, Makati City.   With the duo’s passion and expertise, the partnership flourished in field of intellectual property, -admiralty and/-maritime practice. In 1977, the firm’s profile was further enhanced with the arrival of two distinguished Intellectual Property lawyers Jaime G. Manzano and Teresita C. Velez, leading to the formation of the Tan, Sapalo, Manzano & Velez Law Offices.

In 1983, he filed a case in the Supreme Court for habeas corpus versus Fidel V. Ramos, then a lieutenant general under the Marcos regime questioning the legality and the constitutionality of the Presidential Commitment Order (PCO).  He then embarked in publishing his controversial legal treatise, entitled, “What’s a Presidential Commitment Order?” The treatise drew sharp criticism from the Office of Presidential Legal Adviser and the Ministry of Justice after the treatise was published as part of several installments in a national daily, Bulletin Today, for 7 consecutive days. As a result, the last 2 installments were pulled out.    Two years later, in 1985, Eugene, together with J.B.L. Reyes, former associate justice of the Supreme Court, challenged the legality and the constitutionality of the presidential snap election. This became a landmark case.  That same year, Eugene was appointed by the Philippine government as member of the Escalante Fact-Finding Committee (EFFC) tasked to investigate shooting of civilians in Escalante, Negros Occidental.  Five thousand civilians mostly farmers, fishermen, sugar workers, students and clergymen, held a protest rally at the center of the town plaza to commemorate the 13^th anniversary of Martial Law.   The military used fire-truck to bombard the picket lines with high pressured water and tear gas.  When some protesters threw back the gas canisters, members of the Civilian Home and Defense Force (CHDF), the para-military — who later alleged as the trouble-makers who tried to grab their weapons — opened fire at the masses. Some 50 protesters were killed while 35 were injured.  After the probe, Eugene along with two other members authored the controversial Minority Report recommending not only the criminal prosecution of a notorious political warlord but also top officials in the military for culpable negligence [13].

The Presidential Snap Election which was held a year later was the spark that ignited People’s Power.  It catapulted Corazon Aquino to become the next president of the Republic, thus ending the iron-fisted rule of President Marcos for 17 years.

HIS RISE AND FALL AS IBP PRESIDENT

In 1989, Eugene was elected President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, breaking the 17 year stranglehold of the bar leadership by big time lawyers from Manila.  Eugene was from the Capiz IBP chapter, representing small-time and provincial lawyers, and was perceived to be “uncontrollable” and a threat to those who controlled the IBP for 17 years, specifically a group of Sigma Rho Fraternity of UP, members [14].

When  the  IBP  set  up  a  Commission  on  Bar  Investigation  and  Discipline, composed of retired justices, to investigate charges against erring lawyers and protect them from harassment, everybody approved. But when the same IBP “declared its independence” from the Supreme Court, and created  a  Judicial  Commission  to  evaluate  the  performance  of  the  judiciary  and government  prosecutors,  and  even  sought  the  lifting  of  Raul  Gonzales’  indefinite suspension on the grounds of justice and equity, IBP president Eugene Tan knew that he was asking for trouble.  Not only that, Eugene was guest speaker of the Conference of Bar Associations in Asia, in Seoul, on the topic “Independence of Bar Associations in Asia.”  Eugene believed that while individual lawyers are under the disciplinary power of the Supreme Court, the IBP organization should be independent and beyond control except as may be allowed by the Constitution. He declared the independence of the Bar and asserted the role of IBP as an independent union of lawyers mandated by the Constitution and the law creating it as a check and balance to judicial abuses.

On November 6, 1990, some staffers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) filed a letter complaint addressed to Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan complaining about alleged favoritism and discrimination in the employment practices of IBP president Eugene Tan.

Such labor matters should have been brought to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) where a hearing would be called to allow Eugene the chance to confront and cross-examine his accusers.  Procedure-wise if the decision is rendered against him, Eugene can appeal to the Court of Appeals.

If the Court of Appeals sustains the decision, Eugene may make his final appeal to the Supreme Court.  If he lost the case there, he would be ordered to rectify the anomaly, but not to be suspended or be forced to resign.

But that is not the way it happened.  The Supreme Court en banc issued a resolution dated November 15, creating an ad hoc committee of three associate justices –Teodoro Padilla, Abraham Sarmiento and Carolina Grino-Aquino — to investigate the alleged labor grievance.

Another resolution passed en banc on December 6, requiring the IBP to explain and clarify the waiver of subsidies from the Supreme Court for legal aid and bar discipline; the  creation  of  the  IBP  Judicial  Commission  investigating  judicial  abuses  as  an encroachment on the power of the Court; and the IBP “Declaration of Independence” from whom and from what? asked the Court.

Eugene believed the High Court’s intervention to have nothing to do about “labor grievance,” but was rather motivated by the Court’s concern of the IBP’s declaration of independence from the judiciary, its repudiation of subsidies from the Supreme Court, and the possibility that anomalies by individual Supreme Court justices may be subjected to the scrutiny of an IBP Judicial Committee.

On December 18, 1990, in another en banc resolution, the Court resolved to “widen” the authority of the Committee “to look into all IBP matters as needed, and to submit its recommendations to the Court.”

Thus, the complaint that read “wage discrimination, bias and favoritism” was expanded to include “extravagant or irregular expenditure of IBP funds,” without charges received on that score.

According  to  Eugene,  the  Court’s  committee  chose  the  witnesses  and  the documents  presented,  asked the questions, prohibited Eugene from confronting the witnesses, prosecuted him, and finally judged him.  Neither Eugene nor his counsel were allowed to question, cross-examine or recall witnesses that were presented in his absence or before him; nor was he allowed to present his own witnesses.   The Committee used documents unlawfully taken from the IBP, without verifying whether the documents were tampered with or forged.  Eugene’s protests were overruled on the ground that the Committee was engaged purely in a “fact finding” exercise.  But the unexpected imposition of a penalty shows that the Committee treated the fact-finding investigation as a forum to hear charges against Eugene.  There appears to be some confusion as to what constitutes an investigation and what constitutes a hearing.  Fact finding investigations are informal proceedings to obtain information, not one in which action is taken against any one.  In hearings, there are issues of law and fact, there are charges made, and there are contending parties entitled to be present, to participate and be furnished a record of the proceedings.  According to Eugene, he was denied this due process, unlike the Marcoses and their cronies whose cases were accorded fair play. [15]

How can the Committee be expected to act fairly when it is the accuser, prosecutor and judge?  Eugene wanted to raise procedural questions but could not do so because the Court acted both as court of first instance and the court of last resort.  It acted as a trier of facts at first and last instance, with no possibility of appeal therefrom.  Eugene believed that the real reason for his ouster and censure by the Court was to eradicate budding efforts in preventing the independence of the bar from the bench, and avoiding scrutiny of any justice in the higher courts .

MURDERED OVER MULTI-BILLION PESOS REAL ESTATE DEAL

On the night of November 14, 1994, six armed men abducted Atty. Eugene Tan and his driver, Eduardo Constantino, while on their way home, forcibly dragged them from their car and took them to a desolate area, where they were shot and their bodies dumped in a shallow grave.

Eight days after, the lone gunman was arrested, confessed to the crime and in the process implicated five others who were with the military.  According to the gunman’s confession, the heinous crime perpetrated against a brilliant man of law emerged from a hotly contested multi-billion peso legal dispute involving the heirs in a probate real estate case of one of the landed families in Manila.   The confession also led to the arrest of the mastermind identified as one of the scions of the family who funded the operation with the military.

The prosecution presented strong evidence pointing to the guilt of the accused [16].  However, as the trial dragged inexorably for 18 years and after five different judges had presided over the trial, the complexion of the case had changed.   Finally, on January 10, 2011, Judge Wilfredo de Joya Mayor, Assistant Judge Designate, of the Regional Trial Courts of Cavite, Branch 18, issued a decision [17] acquitting the accused and the mastermind, and convicting the lowly gunman who was sentenced to reclusion perpetua or imprisonment for life.

REQUIEM

At the time of his death, Eugene was survived by his wife, Cynthia Ledesma from Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, and five (5) children: Eugene I; Eugene II; Eunice; Louisine; and Eugene III.

In a requiem for Eugene by Larry Henares, a nationally acclaimed writer and a celebrated columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, he writes, portion which is quoted hereunder:  “We Filipinos celebrate our defeats rather than our victories, because we prize sacrifice above success and virtue over victory, and because we venerate the Christ-like martyr  who  by  his  magnificent  failure  proves  a  principle  and  consummates  the redemption of his people.  That is why Lorenzo Ruiz, Rizal, Ninoy, Gandhi, Lincoln, Kennedy earned our love and respect.  Who knows?  Eugene A. Tan may be such a man.  He suffered his last defeat at the age of 51, strangled to death by persons unknown and buried by his murderers in a shallow grave in Dasmariñas, Cavite.  Who else but Eugene Tan, beaten but unbowed, a one-eyed jack, joker and wild card, a fly-in-the ointment, Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, Don Quijote from La Mancha, Crisostomo Ibarra and Simoun of Noli-Fili, a Cyclops fighting unwinnable battles, a fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread.” [8] 

On Eugene’s sepulcher, an epitaph is written: “Here lies a just man who leads a just life.”

An irony indeed for a man, who having dedicated his life to ensure others receive justice, to have, when his turn came, been unfairly denied its sanctuary.

 

PROFILE:

National President, INTEGRATED BAR OF THE PHILIPPINES (IBP), 1990 – 1991

Deputy Secretary-General for Asia, INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION (IBA) 1990 – 1992

President and Chairman, MARITIME LAW ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (MARLAW)

Awardee in Law, TEN OUTSTANDING YOUNG MEN OF THE PHILIPPINES (TOYMP) 1983

Awardee in Law, THE OUTSTANDING YOUNG PERSONS OF THE WORLD (TOYP) 1983

Professor of Law, College of Law, ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY

Established a PROFESSORIAL CHAIR FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & RULE OF LAW at  the College of Law,  Ateneo de Manila University, March 25, 1993.

Law Book Author, THE PHILIPPINE LAW ON AGENCY

Appointed by the Philippine government as member of the ESCALANTE FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE (EFPC) to investigate the civilians by the military (1984)

Member, Advisory Board of INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW CENTER of the SOUTHWESTERN LEGAL FOUNDATION of the University of Texas, Dallas. (1987 – 1991)

Conferred the ROYAL TITLE OF DATU by the Royal Decree of the 15 Royal Houses of Lanao, Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines, ( September 28, 1990)

Honorary Mayor of the capital city of BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA, USA, (January 24, 1985)

Awardee, PAUL HARRIS FELLOW of the Rotary Club

Salutatorian,  High School

Valedictorian, Magna Cum Laude, A.B.

Valedictorian, LL.B. College of Law

Bar Topnotcher

PUBLIC SERVICE MILESTONE

1969     Sued in behalf of the people to question the constitutionality of a City Ordinance which imposed boarding fees on the air and sea passengers. The ordinance was declared unconstitutional.

1970    Successfully filed a suit in behalf of 45 policemen to interpret the provisions on the salary subsidy of Police Act of 1966.   The favorable decision eventually benefited  law enforcers across the archipelago.

1071     Filed a class suit with the Supreme Court  on behalf of the people to save public funds, questioning the constitutional authority of the  1971 Convention to adopt the parliamentary form of government.

1983    Filed a a suit with the Supreme Court for Habeas Corpus to  assail the legality and the constitutionality of the Presidential Commitment  Order.

1983    Filed a case before the Bureau of Trade & Commerce  and the Philippine Advertising Board on behalf of the consumers  to ban radio and television advertisements on smoking and drinking.  He published a  legal treatise on why smoking and drinking should be banned from multimedia.

1985    Filed the first Supreme Court case on behalf of the Philippine Bar Association and 11 opposition assemblymen, together with jurist Justice  JBL Reyes, questioning the constitutionality of the snap presidential election law.

AWARDS AND CITATIONS

• St. Thomas Moore Award for 1984, conferred by Order of Utopia Honor Society in College of Law, Ateneo de Manila University
• Honor Star Achievement Award conferred by the Philippine Veterans Legion in 1983
• Award for selfless, humanitarian and philanthropic assistance to Filipino Seamen presented by the Association of Filipino Seamen, Inc. in 1979 for the efforts of the awardee in organizing the Free Legal Aid and Consultation Center For Filipino Seamen in Manila.
• Presidential Award for his staunch espousal of the Rule of Law and Enforcement of Human Rights presented by Philippine Bar Association in 1982.
• Award for Most Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Philippines presented by Association of Filipino Seamen, Inc. in 1982
• Presidential Award as Most Outstanding Maritime Lawyer of the Philippines presented by Marine Engine Officers Association of the Philippines.
• Award for his unselfish and invaluable assistance to domestic and overseas Filipino Seafarers injured and lost at sea presented by the Masters and Mates Association of the Philippines
• Paul Harris Fellow Award and an Honorary Membership in Rotary Club of Roxas-Hillside, R.I. District 385, Roxas City, Capiz on July 30, 1988.
• Most Outstanding Young Lawyer of the World, Mr. & Ms. Magazine, October 15, 1985
• Young Man of the Year (1984) by the Philippine Jaycees
• Most Distinguished Alumnus of Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion, Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines
• Salutatorian, High school, Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion
•  Valedictorian, Magna Cum laude, A.B., Colegio de la Purisima Concepcion
•  Valedictorian, LL.B. College of Law, Ateneo de Manila University
• Bar Exam Topnotcher, 14^th place, 1967

 

AUTHOR

• 556-Page Hard Cover The Philippine Law On Agency, 1979 Edition, the most authoritative book on the subject in the Philippines
• Primer On Industrial and Intellectual Property Laws of the Philippines, 1987 Edition
• National Summary for Philippine Law in WILLIAM TETLEY’S MARINE CARGO CLAIMS (1,446-page hard cover volume) Third Edition, 1988
• The Philippine Chapter on Computer Software Protection Law published in the U.S. by BNA Books and authored by Cary H. Sherman, Hamish B. Sandison and Marc D. Guren
• “Who Are The ShipAgents?” Published in August 31, 1987 Issue of The Lawyer’s Review.
• “Legal Aid – The Philippine Scenario” published in October, 1990 by the International Bar Association.
• “The Legal Aid Program of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines” published in June, 1991 by the International Bar Association
• “Independence of the Judiciary” published in June, 1991 by the International Bar Association.
• “What is a Presidential Commitment Order (PCO)? A legal treatise questioning the legality of the PCO, was  serialized in Bulletin Today for 7 consecutive days in 1983.
• “What is Preventive Detention Action (PDA)? Another legal treatise criticizing the PDA as worse version than its predecessor, the PCO.
• “Judicial Power vs. Executive Power” a legal treatise he published in his capacity as collaborating counsel questioning the legality and the propriety of the military’s refusal to comply with Supreme Court order for release of the 3 detained Davao City lawyers.
• “The People Should Limit the Presidential Terms” Published in 1985 to question the constitutionality and morality of the 20-year tenure of the then President Marcos, to ask the people to terminate it, and to limit the future presidential terms.

 

POSTS HELD

• National President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), 1990 – 1991, the law association with memberships of 50,000 Filipino lawyers (Under the law, all Filipino lawyers are required to be members thereof); IBP Governor For Western Visayas; Chairman, IBP Board of Governors; Chairman IBP House of Delegates; Member, IBP Committee on Professional Responsibility, Discipline and Disbarment, 1987-1989.
•  Deputy Secretary-General for Asia of the International Bar Association (IBA) , 1990- 1992; Member, Committee on Legal Aid, 1983-1984; IBA Councillor, 1983 Rome Council Meet; Representative of the Philippine Bar at the IBA Council Meet in Brussels, Belgium, May, 1988 and in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September, 1988.
• Past President, Philippine Bar Association (PBA), the  oldest (100 years) association of lawyers in the Philippines, 1987-1988;  First Vice-President, 1986-1987;  Director, since 1982;  Chairman, Committee on Detention Prisoners, 1983-1985;  Chairman, Committee on Special Projects, 1983-1985; Chairman, Committee on Newsletter, 1985-1987;  Chairman, Public Issues and Legal Actions, 1985-1986;  Chairman, Committee on Public Issues and Public Interests Litigation, 1986-1987;  Editor-In-Chief, PBA Newsletter, 1983-1987;  Chairman, Committee Against Graft and Corruption, 1989.
• Chairman, 1987-1988, Maritime Law Association of the Philippines (MARLAW); President, 1986-1987; Executive Vice-President, 1983-1986; Vice-President for Legal, 1982-1983; Member, Board of Trustees, since 1982.
• Appointed as a member to the Escalante Fact Finding by the Philippine Government to investigate the massacre of civilians in 1985
• Conferred the royal title of “Datu” by the Royal Decree of the 15 Royal Houses of Lanao on September 28, 1990 at Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines
• Honorary Mayor of Baton Rouge, City Capital of Louisiana, USA, on January 24, 1985
• First President and Founder of Order of Utopia, exclusive law fraternity in College of Law, Ateneo de Manila University
• Founder and managing partner of Tan, Sapalo, Manzano & Velez Law firm since 1977, (currently, Sapalo, Velez & Bundang Law Office)
• Vice-President, Ateneo de Manila Law Alumni Foundation, Inc., 1984-1987
• Member, Advisory Board of International and Comparative Law Center of the Southwestern Legal Foundation at University of Texas, Dallas, Texas, USA , 1987- 1991)
• Member, Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines (IPAP)
• Member, Association of Patent Attorneys and Agents of the Philippines (APAAP)
• Member, Catholic Lawyers’ Guild of the Philippines (CLGP)
• Member, Philippine Society of International Law
• Member, Licensing Executive of the Philippines (LES)
• Member, Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA)
• Member, The Law Association for Asia and Western Pacific (LAWASIA)
• Member, the United States Trademark Association (USTA); only non-American Member, Committee on Membership, 1983-1984; Member, Committee on International Advisory, 1985-1986
• First Filipino Member, the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA); Member, Committee on Membership, 1985-1986
• Member, International Law Association (ILA), Philippine branch
• First Filipino Member, International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition of USA
• Member, Organizing Committee of Philippine International Conference on Constitutional Principle and Issues
•  Member, Advisory Board, BNA International Inc., 17 Dartmouth, London, SWIN BBL, England, a subsidiary of the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., 1231 Twenty Fifth, Northwest Washington DC 20037, USA.
• Member, Council of Advisers, Academy of American and International Alumni Association (Philippine Chapter), 1988-1994
• Member, Fellows of the Asia  Foundation (FELTA)
• Member, Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference For Human Development
• Member, Asia-Pacific Center Advisory Council for the Resolution of Business Disputes, American Arbitration Association, San Francisco Ca. USA
• Member, Panel, Conference on Judiciary Planning, Development and Implementation Office
• Member, Institute of Judicial Administration
• Member, Council of International Bar Association
•  Member, National Peace  and Order Council
• Member, Board of Trustees, National Institute for Policy Studies
• Member, Philippine Council for Foreign Relations, Inc.
• Member, Executive Committee, National Coalition for Transparency (NCT)
• Member, Steering Committee, Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA)
• Columnist, BusinessWorld

RELATED SITE:  WIKIPEDIA EUGENE TAN