President Benigno Aquino III Name Florin Hilbay Occupation Lawyer | Nationality Filipino Preceded by Francis Jardeleza Role Solicitor | |
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Born March 19, 1974 (age 50) Philippines ( 1974-03-19 ) Alma mater University of Santo TomasUniversity of the Philippines College of LawYale Law School Education University of the Philippines College of Law, University of Santo Tomas, Yale Law School Similar Jose Calida, Agot Isidro, Benigno Aquino III | ||
Florin Hilbay on his political transition from lawyer to ‘man for poor’
Florin Ternal Hilbay (born March 19, 1974) is a Filipino lawyer who served as the Solicitor General of the Philippines from 2014 to 2016. He ranked first in the 1999 Philippine Bar Examination.
Contents
- Florin Hilbay on his political transition from lawyer to man for poor
- Lawyer Florin Hilbay lamented the governments dishonesty and spread of fake news
- Education
- Early career
- Work as Solicitor General
- Writings
- References
He is a member of the faculty of the University of the Philippines College of Law since 2000, where he teaches Advanced Constitutional Litigation, Constitutional Law, and Philosophy of Law, with emphasis on issues relating to Church and State, post-colonial constitutionalism, and the relationship between the information environment and legal consciousness. He also taught Obligations & Contracts and Public Officers & Election Law.
Lawyer Florin Hilbay lamented the government’s 'dishonesty' and spread of fake news
Education
Hilbay finished his elementary and secondary education at the Holy Child Catholic School in Tondo Manila. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Santo Tomas in 1995. He earned his law degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law at UP Diliman and was admitted to the bar in 1999, placing first in the bar examinations. In 2005, Hilbay obtained his Masters of Law degree from Yale Law School.
He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Boston College in 2001. He has also held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law & International Law in Heidelberg, Germany, and at the Asian Law Institute for Comparative Public Law in the National University of Singapore, and in Silliman University.
Early career
Hilbay topped the 1999 bar examination with a score of 88.5%, sharing the first place distinction with Edwin Enrile of the Ateneo de Manila University. That year, only 16% or 660 of the 3,978 examinees passed the bar.
When the results came out on the same day as his birthday in March 2000, Hilbay was then working as an underbar clerk to Supreme Court Justice Vicente Mendoza, a noted constitutionalist who was a former solicitor from 1971 to 1973 and assistant solicitor general from 1973 to 1980.
Hilbay also previously joined the OSG as an associate solicitor under Solicitor General Simeon Marcelo in 2002. He also served as the Director of the Institute of Government and Law Reform of the University of the Philippines Law Center; a consultant to the Commission on Elections; and as the vice-chair of Bantay Katarungan (Sentinels of Justice), a civic organization formed by former Senator Jovito Salonga, purposefully created to advocate and strengthen the rule of law, to address issues of public injustice and to oversee the appointments process in the judiciary.
He also served as the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Law and Society Review and an editor of the IBP Law Journal.
Work as Solicitor General
Hilbay took over as acting Solicitor General on August 20, 2014, replacing Francis Jardeleza who was appointed as a Supreme Court Associate Justice. President Benigno Aquino III formally appointed Hilbay as Solicitor General on June 16, 2015.
As a senior state solicitor under Jardeleza, he defended the Reproductive Health Law before the Supreme Court in 2014. He also handled cases on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). He was also the principal lawyer for the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and the Bangsamoro. He went on to become solicitor general.
As solicitor general, he served as the Philippines' agent in the arbitration proceeding in Philippines v. China filed with the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Writings
He authored a collection of essays entitled "Unplugging the Constitution" published and distributed by the University of the Philippines Press in 2009. The book, written between 2004 and 2005 while he was in Yale, tackled a wide range of issues. It discussed constitutional law, constitutional theory, philosophy of adjudication, legal hermeneutics, bar exams, the institution of marriage, psychological incapacity, liberal consciousness, and free speech. His theory on the Tort of Constitutional Negligence has been applied in suits for damages against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.