Guest of Honor and Speaker’s Profile: Amado Domingo Valdez

Noted lawyer Amado D. Valdez, the former Dean of the University of the East (UE) College of Law and a known constitutionalist, has been recently appointed Chairman of the Social Security Commission (SSC), the governing board of the Social Security System (SSS). He formally took his oath of office as the pension fund’s Head under the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte in October 2016.

As SSC Chairman, Valdez is responsible, along with his fellow members of the SSC, for the governance of the SSS in terms of providing policy directions, monitoring and overseeing management actions, as well as in performing quasi-judicial functions through decisions rendered in cases involving disputes on social security coverage, benefits, contributions, and penalties.

Valdez’s stint in national government started during the term of then President Corazon Aquino where he served as director of the Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance and member of the Cabinet Assistance System. He was cited for his “Barefoot Lawyers Program” that unclogged the dockets of the Department of Agrarian Reform. In 2001, he functioned as Government Corporate Counsel with the rank of presiding justice of the Court of Appeals. He was also a Senior Undersecretary at the Office of the President and concurrent Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement. Prior to this, Valdez also worked as general attorney at the Law Center of the US Naval Base in Subic Bay and associate of Martin, Davis & Lewis law firm in Los Angeles, California.

Aside from his business and corporate law practice, Valdez was also passionately involved in legal aid work. As the national legal aid director of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in 1999, he successfully implemented its nationwide legal aid program. During his incumbency, a number of remarkable projects were initiated such as decongestion of jails, training of paralegals, programs for the protection of abused women and children, seminars on the barangay justice system, and the commencement of the IBP drug watch, to name a few.

Moreover, as then Philippines’ executive director for Constitutional Issues of Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International, Valdez has represented the country in several overseas fora on election, constitutional, and international laws, as well as national development issues. His past business, professional, and civic involvement includes holding various top positions such as President and Chairman Emeritus of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and Ospital ng Maynila, President of the International Association of Constitutional Law-Philippine Branch and the Philippine Association of Law Schools, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Judicial Academy and Universidad de Manila or City College of Manila, Director of the Rotary Club of Manila, Philex Mining Corporation, and John Hay Management Corporation, among others.

Valdez obtained his Bachelor of Laws Degree from UE after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Manuel L. Quezon University. He attended special studies in International Business Law in the National University of Singapore and has completed academic requirements in Master in Business Economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific and participated in workshops on Top Development Managers in Philippine Government at the Asian Institute of Management. In addition, he was conferred the Doctor of Humanities and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees by the Laguna State Polytechnic University and Hawaii-based Akamai University, respectively.

For several years, one of the country’s leading tabloids, People’s Tonight, carried the column of Valdez, which was chosen as a Finalist for Best Opinion Column in the 2014 Catholic Mass Media Awards. Some of his column pieces have been recently compiled into a small volume titled “Pensees.”

Born in San Manuel, Pangasinan on May 5, 1946, Valdez is married to Nelita Rodrigo-Natividad, blessed with three sons: a lawyer, an architect, and a doctor, and is now a grandfather of four.