Our Team

Ateneo de Manila School of Law

Juris Doctor (JD)

 

Angelo Q. Valencia

Attorney-at-Law

Angelo Raymundo Q. Valencia is Nickel Asia Corporation’s Chairman of the Board Risk Oversight Committee and a member of the Related Party Transactions, Audit, and Nominations Committees of the Board. He is likewise an Independent Director of GR Bank, Inc., Country Bankers Life and Non-Life Corporations. In these regulated public companies, he is the Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committees.

 

 

Mr. Valencia is Presidential Adviser on Food Security, Education, and Environmental Stewardship of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Development Academy of the Philippines, and a Lecturer at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Command Staff Graduate Course. He also serves as Senior Advisor to the NOLCOM Heroes Foundation, Philippine Marine Corps, the Philippine Air Force, and AFP Leadership Development Center.

 

He was also a Senior Corporate and Tax Counsel of the Lucio Tan Group and Chief Operating Officer of Mindanao Grains Processing Co., Inc.

 

 

Mr. Valencia has received numerous awards and citations for his public service endeavors. He founded the project Klasrum ng Pag-asa, a private sector initiative that builds, augments and reconstructs public school structures nationwide.

 

 

He obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo School of Law in 1998. He is a member of the Philippine Bar.

University of the Philippines
Juris Doctor (J.D.)

University of Sto. Tomas
AB Political Science

Althea E. Acas

Attorney-at-Law

Althea is the Managing Partner of Sed Lex Professional Partnership. Althea is a tax (direct and indirect) and corporate lawyer with deep policy drafting, project management and business analysis experience. She specializes in regulatory governance with particular emphasis on the following fields — direct and indirect taxation, trade facilitation, environment, maritime, energy, land transportation, agriculture, food and drugs — where she has acted on behalf of both private and public interest groups.

She is presently a tax lecturer at the San Beda College of Law – Alabang, a Subject Matter Expert on Fiscal Revenue Legal Framework for the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) of the Office of the President and a CMTA Policy Consultant for the Office of the Commissioner of Bureau of Customs. 

Althea also acted as the General Counsel of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and is also a trained arbitrator of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. (PDRCI). 

Her expertise comes from having dealt with a wide range of clients in private and public sector. She is known for her direct, systematic and results-oriented approach. She understands her client’s vision and helps them accomplish them in an effective, secure, and sustainable way. She is capable of adapting and utilizing her skills and expertise to fulfill the client’s demand with integrity and competence. Some of her accomplishments include the following: Negotiated the asset Sale of a 9 month old start-up to one of the two (2) major telcos in the Philippines; Provided tax planning and legal risk mitigation programs for several Top 1000 companies; Advised Top 1000 Corporation clients on often opaque regulatory rules in order to lower costs of doing business while eliminating risk; Project Head of the 10 Year Case Audit of the Trafficking-In-Persons (TIP) Project by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT)-Department of Justice (DOJ)(a pioneering study often cited by the Department of Justice in its TIP presentations); Acted as Project Manager of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act Implementing Rules and Regulations Project Management Office (CMTA IRR PMO) which institutionalized the use of business process and regulatory impact analysis in policy making; Primarily contributed to the framework of analysis of governmental regulation used by the Inter-Agency Business Process Interoperability Project of the Department of Finance.

Prior to graduating from law school, Althea spent several years in San Francisco, California. There she worked as a Business Analyst for a software development company catering to major players in the financial service and legal service industries. 

University of the Philippines
Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Ateneo de Manila University
BS Management

Mark Isaak S. Garrido

Attorney-at-Law

Mark is primarily engaged in corporate and retainer services work, contract review, tax advisory and consultation, labor advisory, intellectual property and special project transactions. 


Mark has extensive experience in guiding and assisting businesses in the formation of corporate structures, streamlining of business processes, and drafting commercial contracts including employment contracts and master service and distribution agreements. He also serves as Corporate Secretary of several corporations engaged in agro-industrial, food service, retail, logistics and IT industry. 

 

As part of his practice, Mark has handled tax audits and assessments on behalf of Corporations before Revenue District Offices, Revenue Region Offices and the Large Taxpayer Service of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and has drafted drafted tax-related legal documents related thereto. He has also received training in commercial arbitration and tax accounting. 

Before joining the firm, Mark served as a Legal Assistant for Board Member Al A. Parreno in the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), where he drafted and prepared legal documents, circulars and decisions for the Board. He also conducted in-depth legal research on relevant laws, statutes, administrative regulations, and articles involving relevant land transportation issues. 

 

In law school, Mark served as the Chairman of the U.P. College of Law Electoral and Judicial Tribunal (EJT), where he led the organization of the U.P. Law Student Government (LSG) elections. 

 

Prior to law school, Mark also worked as a Management Trainee for Philippine Seven Corporation (7-Eleven) where he underwent a hands-on management training program in preparation for a Junior Level Management position with special focus on Marketing, Sales and Operations. Mark also worked as an Accounts Specialist for Universal Robina Corporation (URC), where he directly managed URC beverage on-premise consumption accounts and opened new accounts in the Marikina, Rizal area, handled regional distributors, assisted in creating more efficient order and delivery strategies, and conceptualized trade marketing activities and programs for accounts.

University of the Philippines
BS Business Administration

Aldwin Nicolas C. Flores

Regulatory Affairs Manager

Aldwin is currently serving as the Firm’s Regulatory Affairs Manager.

 

Aldwin worked as paralegal officer for Repizo Law Office, while finishing his bachelor’s degree. He joined San Miguel Corporation-Beer Division in October of 2005, as one of its Sales-trainee.

 

In 2006, he became a Technical Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Legal Department of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.


From 2007 to 2013, Aldwin worked as an Account Manager for J Aces Staff, Inc., one of PLDT’s below-the-line activation agency where he handled nationwide activation and marketing campaigns.


Prior to joining the firm, Aldwin served as Head Executive Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Mindanao Grain Processing Co., Inc. in Reina Mercedes, Isabela, Philippines.

University of the Philippines
Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Ateneo de Manila University
AB Political Science

 

Jonina Q. Aquino

Attorney-at-Law

Joni joined Sed Lex Professional Partnership in 2017 while she was a third-year law student. As a legal assistant, she drafted pleadings, legal opinions, and conducted legal research. She also assisted in handling corporate and tax matters. She recently passed the 2019 bar examinations.
 
She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 2019. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Ateneo de Manila University in 2014.