Tranquil Salvador III

Tranquil Gervacio S. Salvador III is a Filipino lawyer, educator, civic leader, and media advocate for mainstreaming and popularizing law education in the Philippines. He has served as spokesperson and member of the defense panel for the impeachment of the then-Chief Justice Renato Corona and handled other notable cases of Filipino personalities and corporations.

He is a well-cited legal analyst for issues of national interest including the recent removal from office of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and the impeachment complaint filed against the seven justices who voted to remove Sereno through a quo warranto petition.

Salvador III is the host for television and radio legal education programs, Patakaran of Net 25 and Legally Yours of Radyo Aguila. He also holds professorial and teaching positions in leading universities and law centers in the Philippines.

Concurrently, he is a Partner in the Romulo Mabanta, Buenaventura, Sayoc, and De Los Angeles Law Firm, where he co-heads the Litigation & Arbitration, and Environment and Natural Resources Departments.

Salvador III, born on May 19, 1967, is the eldest of the three children born to Tranquil Phodaca Salvador Jr., a retired Makati regional trial court judge, and Cornelia Suaverdez.

As a thriving young leader, he was elected as Student Council President of the College of Arts and Letters, University of Santo Tomas, where he earned his degree in economics in 1987. Before his admission to the Philippine Bar in 1992, he served as the Associate Editor of the Ateneo Law Journal, and Student Council President of the Ateneo De Manila University, School of Law (Ateneo), where he received his Juris Doctor in 1991. He also served as the first chairman of the Association of Law Students of the Philippines for National Capital Region in 1990. In recognition, Ateneo awarded him the Evelio B. Javier Leadership Award, an award for students who have consistently pursued the "ideals of genuine leadership, concern for fellow students and selfless service to the law school and the community." (Villanueva, 2008)

Salvador III obtained his Master of Laws in Suffolk Law School where he specialized in global business law. Visiting International Scholar on Trial Advocacy at Suffolk University Law School in September 2018.

His siblings are Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) Alexander S. Salvador and Dr. Jonathan S. Salvador.

Salvador III has been in the academe for 25 years, and has been appointed to various teaching and professional positions. In 2006, he was appointed as the Dean of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay.

He is a professor of law in the University of the Philippines, the Ateneo De Manila University, where he serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Remedial Law Department, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and Centro Escolar University School of Law and Jurisprudence. He specializes in remedial law, civil and criminal procedure, evidence, trial technique and provisional remedies.

He was the holder of the Justice Jose Colayco Professorial Chair in Remedial Law from 2010 to 2016, and the Tan Yan Kee Professorial Chair from 2006 to 2009, both awarded by Ateneo.

Salvador III is part of the UP Law Center Committee that deliberated and suggested answers to the Philippine Bar Remedial Law questions in 2007-2010, 2011, 2013, and 2015. In 2011, he became part of the Oversight Committee, led by Justice Roberto Abad, that validated the first multiple choice bar questions. He also gives lectures to several bar review centers in the Philippines.

Salvador III is a member of the Committee that drafted the Quezon City Litigation Practice, an initiative of the Philippine Supreme Court, with the assistance of the American Bar Association Rule of Law and the United States Agency for International Development. He was appointed by Justice Roberto Abad in the technical working group for Pre-Trial and Trial for the amendment of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

Member of the Committee on the Revision of the Rule of Court by the Supreme Court, Memorandum Order No. 03-2019and Member of the Sub-Committee for the Revision of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure.

Bar Examiner in Remedial Law for the 2018 Bar Examinations.

Awardee in Law by the Huwarang Pilipino (Exemplary Filipino) Foundation in 2001 and 2005

Awardee of the Organized Response for the Advancement of Society Inc. (ORAS) in 2011 which was founded by Former Supreme Court Justice Emilio Gancayco to promote time consciousness and honesty in service.

Special Alumni Recognition from the Ateneo de Manila Law Alumni Association, Inc. in 2017 for his service as Dean of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay.

Anak TV Awardee, 2016-2018

Salvador III was the spokesperson of the Defense Team in the Impeachment Case of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2012. Other members of the Defense Team were its lead counsel former Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas,and prominent lawyers Eduardo delos Angeles, Jose Roy III, Jacinto Jimenez, Dennis Manalo, Ramon Esguerra, and Karen Jimeno former Undersecretary of the DPWH.

He gained substantial media attention for sharing his legal opinions and sentiments that the trial should not be a contest of popularity. He was also asked by then-Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who voted against Corona, to "take the podium and show his handsome face."

In the recent impeachment case against de facto Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Salvador III was again eyed to assist the House of Representative prosecutors for the possible impeachment proceedings in the Philippine Senate. However, Sereno was ousted through the Quo-Warranto Petition, filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida. Salvador III was one of the legal analysts who concurred that the quo-warranto ouster was constitutional and valid.

Media reporters have consulted with Salvador III on his views regarding the looming constitutional crisis predicated on the Impeachment Complaint filed against the seven Supreme Court Justices who voted against Sereno.

He has also served as the spokesperson for the PhP. 2 Billion tax assessment case filed against Senator Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao and was the lead counsel of Deputy Speaker (former Governor of Cebu) Gwendolyn Garcia in the various graft and administrative cases filed against her.

Salvador III, in his private law practice, is a Partner in the Romulo, Mabanta, Buenaventura, Sayoc, and Delos Angeles Law Firm, where he is the Co-Head of the Litigation & Arbitration, and Environment & Natural Resources Departments.

He successfully represented the minority shareholders in the case of Jonathan Dee v. Harvest All Investment Limited, et al., G.R. No. 224834, March 15, 2017, where the Supreme Court declared that an action calling for Stockholders' Meeting is incapable of pecuniary estimation, and the pronouncement in the case of Lu v. Lu Ym, 658 Phil.156 (2011) that an intra-corporate controversy always involves a property in litigation and that there can be no case of intra-corporate controversy where the value of the subject matter cannot be estimated is but an obiter dictum.

Salvador III merges his hats as a law educator and media practitioner in mainstreaming and popularizing law education into public consciousness, highlighting the practical relevance of the usually construed—ivory tower— discipline to the daily life of the Filipino.

He is the mainstay television host of Patakaran on Net 25 a public affairs program that aims to "dispel the fiction that law is difficult to understand by imparting a basic knowledge to its viewers." He is also the radio host of Legally Yours on Radyo Aguila (DZEC 1062), where he gives free legal consultation and advice on relationships, family matters, and current events in the Philippines.

Salvador III is the former President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines - Quezon City Chapter (2009–2011) where he launched the first and only Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on Wheels Program that brought legal aid assistance by van to local communities. From 2010 to 2011, he served as the District Governor of Rotary Club International for District 3810, the oldest District in the Philippines consisting the cities of Manila and Pasay and provinces of Cavite and Oriental Mindoro. He likewise sits on the boards of various corporations and non-government organizations in the Philippines.

Salvador III is married to Maria Roselle Apasan with four children, Tranquil Matthew IV, Maria Isabela, and twins Jose Miguel and Jose Gabriel who were models of one of the promotional campaign of Ateneo to encourage people to walk instead of using cars inside its campus.

He is a family man, having been reported once by the media to have skipped certain schedules of the Corona Impeachment to attend the graduation of his son Tranquil Matthew IV at the Ateneo Grade School.

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