Dr. RAFAELITA “FITA” M. ALDABA is Undersecretary for Competitiveness and Innovation of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the Philippine Board of Investments (BOI).

She fulfills a key role in the formulation and implementation of the Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy (i3S), which puts innovation at the heart of the country’s new industrial policy by leading DTI’s initiatives in preparing industries for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and advancing the digital transformation of MSMEs and large enterprises, establishing Regional Inclusive Innovation Centers (RIICs), developing the country’s creative industries, and growing a robust startup ecosystem in the country.

A researcher turned policymaker, Dr. Aldaba was Senior Research Fellow and Acting Vice-President of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. She has extensive research experience, authored various publications on development issues, and conceptualized and managed research projects with various international organizations, including The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the United States Agency for International Development.

Representative Sharon S. Garin is the Chairperson of the House Committee on Economic Affairs and Vice-Chair of the House Committees on Ways and Means; Transportation, Banks and Financial Intermediaries; and Globalization and WTO.
A CPA-Lawyer by profession, she spearheaded the drafting of Republic Act 10863, otherwise known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and has been active in the oversight functions of the committee over the Bureau of Customs.
Representative Garin is the principal author of the following landmark measures: The Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act (Republic Act No. 11524), the First Package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (Republic Act No. 10963), and the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (Republic Act No. 11534)

As the Chairperson of the House Committee on Economic Affairs, she has sponsored several priority measures in the 18th Congress, including the Digital Taxation Act (House Bill 7425) and the proposed amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (House Bill 59), Public Service Act (House Bill 78), and Foreign Investments Act (House Bill 1221).

In the 17th Congress, she became the first party-list representative to ever be elected as Deputy Speaker in the Philippine House of Representatives and the first ever female Deputy Speaker from the Province of Iloilo.

Representative Garin holds an Accounting degree from the University of the Philippines Visayas and a Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University Law School. She pursued further studies in Barcelona, Spain where she graduated with an international MBA from Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE).

Ms. Maria Veronica Faner Magsino is the current Executive Director of Management Services at the Philippine Board of Investments – an investment promotion agency operating under the Department of Trade and Industry, that grants tax incentive packages to local and foreign businesses operating in the Philippines. She used to work for the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) where she was the Group Manager of their Management Information Systems, Corporate Planning and Ecozone Development Group.

Ms. Magsino is also the former Acting Vice President of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation, the former Chief of Staff of a Member of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' Monetary Board, and the former Director of the Philippine Board of Investments' Policy, Systems, and Budget Department. She also has investment analysis experience, having previously worked at the Department of Economic Research and Statistics.

She has previous teaching experience, having taught at De La Salle University and St. Scholastica's College.

She graduated Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines where she took her Bachelor of Arts in Economics degree. She later took her Master of Arts in Economics at the University of Sussex.

In 1999, she received the Pag-Asa Award from the CMI Service Commission. It is an award bestowed to the Director of the Policy, Systems and Budget Department (PSBD) and staff of the MIS Division of the PSBD of the Board of Investments for innovativeness in securing and operating the agency’s IT requirements during a tight budget situation.

Camille Bianca Gatmaitan-Santos is a senior associate in Quisumbing Torres' Dispute Resolution Practice Group. She has nine years of experience in commercial and criminal litigation, as well as arbitration. She serves as Institute Treasurer of the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators (PIARB) and a member of the Local Steering Committee of the Young International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA). She is an accredited arbitrator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market and a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Previously, she also served as the Assistant National Secretary of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the official organization of all lawyers in the country.

Jared is a senior associate in Quisumbing Torres' Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He heads the Firm's Transportation and Logistics Industry Group Subsector. Jared has 10 years of litigation experience, with a particular focus on criminal litigation and arbitration.

He is one of a handful of Philippine Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators (FPIArb). He is an accredited arbitrator of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. (PDRCI) and an accredited arbitrator and mediator of the Philippine Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). Jared sat as an arbitrator in the first WESM arbitrations in the Philippines, and has acted as counsel in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations.

He conducts MCLE lectures on commercial arbitration, and has co-authored a book on the matter. He currently teaches Civil Procedure and Sales Law at the Far Eastern University Institute of Law. He is also a supervising lawyer at the Ateneo Legal Services Center, where he oversees students in handling pro bono cases.

Jared studied at the Ateneo Law School (2010) where he received the Dean's Silver Medal for his J.D. thesis on foreign arbitral awards. He served as president of the Ateneo Society of International Law and was part of teams that represented the Philippines and won in moot court competitions in Florida (1st runner-up; 2007 Stetson International Environmental Law Moot Court Competition) and Japan (1st; 2008 Asia Cup International Law Moot Court Competition).

Luisa Fernandez-Guina is a partner in Quisumbing Torres' Corporate & Commercial/M&A Practice Group and co-heads the Firm's Consumer Goods & Retail Industry Group. She is also a member of the Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry Group. She has 15 years of experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, commercial agreements and contracts, and general corporate and commercial work.

Alain Charles Veloso is a partner of Quisumbing Torres' Corporate & Commercial Practice Group. He heads the firm's Capital Markets Practice Group and is a member of the Competition Focus Group. He is also a member of the Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Industrials, Manufacturing & Transportation Industry Groups. He participates in the initiatives of Baker McKenzie International of which Quisumbing Torres is a member firm. He is a member of Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Competition Steering Committee. He has 15 years of legal practice, advising clients with regard to their transactions in the Philippines, including private and public M&A transactions, debt, and equity capital markets transactions, and structuring and establishment of their Philippine presence. Charles is also developing the Firm's fintech practice, and handles various clients that are currently engaged in online travel, retail, financing, medical health, and insurance businesses in the Philippines.

Charles is also active in the Firm's Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. He heads the firm's Inclusion & Diversity and B-Green committees. He is currently a Director of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Makati Chapter, and currently serves as the Chairperson of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He has been recognized as External Counsel of the Year in Asia by The Asian-MENA In-House Community Counsels in 2019, and cited as a Next Generation Lawyer for Corporate and M&A by Legal 500 for 2017 and 2018. He was also a 2018 Bench and Bar Awardee of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines' Leyte Chapter. He was awarded Young Lawyer of the Year by Asian Legal Business Philippine Law Awards 2020 and as a Leading Individual in Capital Markets by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2020 to 2022. He was awarded Client Choice Awards for Competition by Lexology 2021.

Charles studied Law at the UP College of Law (cum laude and class valedictorian) and EU Competition Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2017. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.