Veteran lawyer Santiago T. Gabionza Jr. has been designated as the representative of Senator Joel Villanueva in the Board of Regents of the Catanduanes State University (CSU).

Sen. Villanueva, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education, confirmed the designation in a letter to Gabionza last month.

He told the Bato-born lawyer that the designation comes with all the powers and duties under Rule V, Section 18 of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 3, series of 2001.

“As my representative, you are to perform your duties and responsibilities within the authority given with utmost diligence and within the bounds of the law and rules of the Commission on Audit,” the senator stated.

He also informed Gabionza that as earlier communicated to CHED, he (Villanueva) and his representatives to the state universities and colleges will not receive honoraria for attending meetings of the Board.

Married to the former Aileen Sarmiento with whom he has two children, Miguel Angelo and Kara Patricia, Atty. Gabionza was an honor graduate of Bato Central Elementary School and high school class salutatorian at the Catanduanes Institute.

After graduating from Colegio de San Juan de Letran as summa cum laude in Bachelor of Economics, he studied law at Ateneo de Manila University, finishing second honors.

Now a senior partner at the Villanueva Gabionda & Dy Law Offices in Makati City, he is a member of the board of directors and corporate secretary of various corporations and was once a member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).

In 2008, Gabionza was named by the Hongkong-based Euromoney Institutional Investor as one of ASIALAW Leading Lawyers in Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy.

The 2012 Grandmaster in the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines, he was recognized in the same year as most outstanding Master Mason in the field of Corporate Law, on top of the Grandmaster’s Centennial Award he was awarded in 1999.