PRESBITERO VELASCO JR.

Governor Presbitero J. Velasco Jr. is a product of the public school system. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines (UP), finishing the course in only three years.  

He went on to take up his Bachelor of Laws, also from UP. At the UP College of Law, he became a member of the Order of the Purple Feather Honor Society and served on the Editorial Board of the Philippine Law Journal. He graduated eighth in the Class of 1971 and placed sixth in the 1971 Philippine Bar Examination with a rating of 89.85 percent.  

He engaged in private law practice for 20 years before joining the public sector as a regular member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in 1993. 

Gov. Velasco also served as Undersecretary of the Department of Justice from 1995 to April 1998. He was Commissioner of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, Chairman of the Board of Pardons and Parole, Commissioner of the Commission on Settlement of Land Disputes, and member of the Committee on Privatization.  

In 1998, he was appointed to the Court of Appeals Justice. He ranked eighth in the disposition of cases when he was named Court Administrator in 2001.  

Gov. Velasco also served the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in several capacities: National President in 1987; Commissioner of the IBP Committee on Bar Discipline; and Honorary Chairman and Past National Co-Chairman of the IBP National Committee on Legal Aid. 

He was awarded Most Outstanding Jurist by the Consumers Union of the Philippines in 2000.  

When he was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, he wrote the concurring opinion about the landmark decision on the Mandanas and Garcia v. Ochoa case. 

He is also National President of the League of Provinces of the Philippines and national chairman of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines.  

Gov. Velasco is married to Lorna Quinto-Velasco, with whom he has three children. He is the father of former House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, concurrently the Representative of the Lone District of the Marinduque.