Introduction

By Cesar A. Buenaventura, MBC Trustee

As the most senior member of the Board of Trustees, both in age and tenure, I have been asked to say a few words on our guest speaker.

Dick Romulo is by nature a very private person and has never wanted to be in the limelight – but tonight has to be an exception.

I first met Dick during the Japanese occupation – so that dates both of us. My early recollection of him was that of a studious and shy boy.

Not many of you are probably aware that Dick spent most of his formative years in the U.S. when the family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1946, immediately after the 2nd World War.

He was graduated from St. John’s College High School, run by the Christian Brothers, earned a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Georgetown University, a Jesuit institution and finally a J.D. (Doctor of Jurisprudence) from Harvard Law School in 1958.

He had to spend a year in the Ateneo Law School, where he encountered my brother Chito, to enable him to take the Philippine Bar in 1959. So both La Sallites and Ateneans in the audience can claim him as one of them.

He promptly joined the forerunner of the law firm he now heads, in 1960 – that’s 46 years ago – Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and de los Angeles or RMBSA , for short.

He was married in 1961 to the lovely Tessie Romero, until he lost her in 1992. He has remained a very eligible widower since.

Dick’s main focus when he joined the law profession was to be a successful corporate lawyer, a goal he easily attained. His many satisfied clients, both foreign and local, in this gathering will attest to that.

And then the Makati Business Club came along. He was invited by Enrique Zobel to be a member of the Board of Trustees in 1985. In those days, we didn’t elect Board Members --- they were invited to serve. When he was asked to assume the Chairmanship in 1987 to succeed Ting Paterno, who was elected to the Senate, little did he know that he would be stuck as MBC Chairman for almost 20 years.

During all these times, his services were sought by successive governments from President Aquino to President Estrada – in the Constitutional Convention, the Davide Fact-Finding Commission to look into the series of coup attempts, Chairman of the Philippine Malaysia Business Council and the Committee on Judicial Reform, among others.

The one characteristic that stands out in everything he gets into is his unwavering devotion and loyalty be it to his law profession and the firm he has managed, to his dearly departed wife, and to the Makati Business Club – in good times and in bad.

Dick, we salute you for your steadfast stewardship of the Makati Business Club through all these years.

Friends, ladies and gentlemen --- May I present to you Atty. Ricardo Romulo --- the quintessential lawyer, and in my book, the best Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that the Philippines never had.

Go to:
• Inside MBC
• Ramon del Rosario's Opening Remarks
• Ricardo J. Romulo's Inaugural Speech
• Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala's Closing Remarks