When Ricardo J. Romulo, aka RJR, recently turned 90, his friends, family and associates gathered at the Manila Polo Club Main Lounge to greet him and wish him the best.
That it was a big turn-out of those he cares about and those who, in turn, care about him, confirms not only his eminence in the legal and public service spheres but also the high esteem he enjoys from Philippine society. His accomplishments, moreover, prove himself worthy of his distinguished lineage, with no less than the late long-serving Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the only Filipino to serve as the president of the United Nations General Assembly, General Carlos P. Romulo for a father.
RJR is a senior partner in and Executive Board chair of the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and De Los Angeles Law Office where he specializes in corporate law. From 1987 to 2006, he served as chairman of the Makati Business Club, which is composed of more than 400 of the top Philippine corporations.
His Holiness Pope John Paul II conferred on him the Order of Saint Gregory the Great with the rank of Knight in 1997. He was also appointed Consul General in 2002 by Her Majesty Queen Margethe II of Denmark, who conferred on him the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Dannebrog in 2010.
RJR has worked on a number of commissions for the Philippine government, including the 1986 Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution and the Fact-Finding Commission that investigated the 1989 attempted coup d’etat. He also served in committees established by the Supreme Court that dealt with Legal Education, Revision of the Judicial Code, and Revision of the Canons of Judicial Ethics, Small Claims, and Judicial Management. The Supreme Court appointed him bar examiner in taxation in 1974 and commercial law in 1992, and member of the executive committee for the Supreme Court’s centenary celebrations. He was also appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as one of the five members of the Governance Advisory Council in 2001.
Romulo received his Bachelor of Laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1958 and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, graduating cum laude in 1955. He joined the law firm in 1960, the same year he was admitted to the Philippine bar.