The Other Spox.

Straight from the Horse's Mouth

“Nobody believes the official spokesman… but everybody trusts an unidentified source.” — Ron Nessen

Clean living and the art of bonsai is the formula for a healthy lifestyle of a lawyer whose job title is a description of a very stressful working environment – Chief Presidential Legal Counsel to the President of the Philippines. It is a job that puts him in the middle of one controversy after another, where he has to face severe criticisms especially from netizens, and keep an air of being unaffected by it. Despite that, Atty. SALVADOR SAN BUENAVENTURA PANELO, now in his mid-70s, continues to do his work, unaffected by what others are saying. A lawyer who most recently served as the chief legal counsel of President Rodrigo Duterte before resigning in October 2021 to run for senator in the 2022 elections, he was also the president’s spokesman from October 2018 until he was replaced by returning Palace mouthpiece Harry Roque who vacated his post to make an unsuccessful bid for the Senate.

Born on September 23, 1946 in Naga, Camarines Sur, he studied elementary at the Murphy Elementary School and high school at the Roosevelt Memorial High School. He moved to Manila to go to the University of the Philippines College of Law for his law education. As a student at the University of the Philippines Diliman and a member of the Sigma Rho fraternity, he was involved in student activism during the pre-martial law period. He stayed at the University of the Philippines and completed law school in 1974 and passed the Philippine Bar Examination the same year.

After graduating from law school, he first practiced law at United Laboratories where he served as the company's legal counsel from 1977 to 1987. He assumed the directorship of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in 1983 and presidency of the IBP Rizal Chapter in 1985. In 1987, he was hired as a radio anchor at DZEC Radyo Agila where he worked for one year. It was also in 1987 when he started his private law practice.

In his 40 years of law practice, specializing in constitutional, criminal and remedial law, Atty. Panelo defended prominent political personalities such as Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. over the infamous 2009 Maguindanao massacre, defense lawyer of Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez who was tried for the 1993 Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez murder, and the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in relation to recovering ill-gotten wealth amassed during Martial Law.

Before he was appointed to the Duterte administration, Panelo represented then-presidential aspirant Duterte during the 2016 campaign, including against charges of hidden wealth by Senator Antonio Trillanes, who was then running for vice president. Atty. Panelo also lawyered for former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos who was embroiled in the 2007 elections scandal, Philip Medel who was convicted in the murder of actress Nida Blanca, and the family of slain racing champion Enzo Pastor. His other clients include celebrities such as Deniece Cornejo in her 2014 rape case against actor Vhong Navarro, and Dennis Roldan who was convicted of kidnapping a Filipino-Chinese boy in 2005.

A fellow Rotarian, he is a member the Rotary Club of Makati Southwest chapter, a member of the Board of Trustees of the San Beda Law Alumni Association, and Secretary General of the Asean Law Association Golfers’ Club.

Prior to joining the government of Rodrigo Duterte on June 30, 2016, he was his legal counsel and defense lawyer on the charges of hidden wealth by vice presidential candidate Antonio Trillanes during the presidential campaign. He eventually served as the President-elect's transitional spokesperson before being designated as Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.

Atty. Panelo previously ran for senator in 1992 under the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), the party founded by late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and finished 125th. As a senatorial candidate, he campaigned on a platform of “bringing the ‘tapang at malasakit’ brand of leadership to the Senate” by providing free education and accessible medical, legal, and social services for regular Filipinos. He is running under the administration-backed faction of PDP-Laban. His candidacy has been endorsed by President Duterte and his daughter, vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte, but he has not been included in the Senate slate of the younger Duterte's tandem with Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son and namesake of the late chief executive.