By Sepha Pagdanganan
Judge Selma Alaras (left) and Vice Dean Anna Marie Trinidad (middle) speaks with students of the SBCA-SOL in preparation of the graduation rites. (Photo by Anne Naig / The Red Chronicles)
Once again, the San Beda College Alabang – School of Law (SBCA-SOL) community is greeted with good news. Last August 26, 2021, Vice Dean Anna Marie Melanie B. Trinidad was appointed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte as the Legal Education Board’s (LEB) new Chairperson.
Vice Dean Trinidad will be the second SBCA-SOL professor to lead the LEB. The late Justice Hilarion Aquino, the pioneer chair of the regulatory board, was also a member of the School of Law faculty.
The appointment brought mixed emotions as the Vice Dean shared what she felt upon knowing the news. “I was very ecstatic,” she said, “[b]ut then, I quickly realized that I cannot continue teaching anymore and that made me a bit nostalgic and sad.”
Trinidad was an associate lawyer in Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALaw). She later became a senior partner in Parulan Soncuya Trinidad Law Offices. Being part of the School of Law administration, her legal practice came side-by-side with more than a decade of teaching the law.
Now appointed to a more influential post, she is now given an opportunity to utilize her capabilities in a broader scope as the head of the governmental agency instrumental in the formation of future members of the Philippine Bar.
In an exclusive interview with The Red Chronicles, the newly-appointed LEB Chairperson said that “The Board needs to formulate new policies that will ensure that law schools in the Philippines ultimately produce lawyers who are intellectually equipped, worthy of the title, and who will be worth emulating as members of the legal profession. The approach is consultative and all- inclusive, meaning, the Board shall consult with the Deans and administrators of law schools on issues that concern the legal education.”
As a chapter in her life closes and a new one begins, Vice Dean Trinidad looks back fondly at her time in the School of Law.
“I have spent my last thirteen years in the SOL. Teaching has since been a special part of my being. I will miss the SOL, our Dean Ulan, Prefect, Atty. Carlo Busmente and Admin. Officer, Atty. Jun Cadugo. The student-assistants, Emm and Louise. I will miss my fellow faculty members. A lot of us might be intimidating in class, but I remember, when we used to sit at the round table in our lounge, our no-holds barred demeanor – that is what I will miss. I will miss our students here. Just their routinely respectful greeting physically or virtually has always made me happy.”
“Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we touch,” the vice dean said, quoting the American writer, Judy Blume. “I hope I have instructed my students well, that I have given them hope when they most needed it, and that I have made them feel that I truly, very truly cared for them.”
Her care was felt by the students. “She really cared for each and every one of us,” stated a former beadle in her Criminal Law I and II classes. “We had a classmate who had gone missing, and she was very worried about that classmate’s safety. We could see that she truly wished to impart her knowledge to us. She would never humiliate a student in recitations, and her questions, while challenging, also helped us grow in appreciation of the law and its intricacies. There is no one I can think of more deserving of this appointment.”
“Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we touch,” the vice dean said, quoting the American writer, Judy Blume.
The LEB will be chaired by Vice Dean Trinidad for a term expiring on January 14, 2024. She will be succeeding Atty. Emerson B. Aquende, the former Dean of Aquinas University – College of Law.
Vice Dean Trinidad has touched the lives of many in the SBCA-SOL community, of both her students and her colleagues. While the community will miss having her as a professor, it is also proud of her new role that will touch even more lives. ∎