Born on August 8, 1948 in Pasay City, Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr.

is a product of the public

school system. He went to J. Sumulong Elementary School (First Honorable Mention) and the
University of the Philippines (UP) Preparatory School, respectively, for elementary and high school.
He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from UP finishing the course in only
three years. He went on to take up his Bachelor of Laws from the same university. At the UP College
of Law, Justice Velasco was a member of the Order of the Purple Feather Honor Society and served
on the Editorial Board of the Philippine Law Journal. He graduated eighth in the Class of 1971. He
placed sixth in the 1971 Philippine Bar Examination with a bar rating of 89.85%.[1]
He engaged in private law practice for 20 years before joining the public sector as a regular member
of the JBC in 1993.
Justice Velasco also served as Undersecretary of the Department of Justice from 1995 to April 1998.
He was concurrently Commissioner of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board. He was also
Chairman of the Board of Pardons and Parole, Commissioner of the Commission on Settlement of
Land Disputes, and Member of the Committee on Privatization.
In 1998, he was appointed Court of Appeals Justice. He was ranked eighth in disposition of cases
when he was named Court Administrator in 2001.
Justice Velasco has also served the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in several capacities: as
its National President in 1987, as Commissioner of the IBP Committee on Bar Discipline, and as
Honorary Chairman and Past National Co-Chairman of the IBP National Committee on Legal Aid.
He was awarded Most Outstanding Jurist by the Consumers Union of the Philippines in 2000.
Justice Velasco is married to Lorna Q. Velasco with whom he has three children: Vincent
Michael, Lord Allan Jay, and Tricia Nicole. Tricia (Ateneo Law School, Juris Doctor program) passed
the 2008 Philippine Bar Examination.[1]

MANILA, Philippines - Denying accusations he is biased, Supreme Court Justice

Presbitero Velasco decided to inhibit on Wednesday, October 17, from the cases
challenging the constitutionality of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
Velasco -- previously the assigned ponente (writer of the decision) of the case -said he will recuse from handling the petitions "to erase any doubt or suspicion
that preconception may influence or even taint the adjudication of said cases."

He maintained, however, that allegations of him being biased are "baseless and
bereft of truth," adding that he even recommended the issuance of the temporary
restraining order on October 9, stopping the implementation of Republic Act
10175 or the Cybercrime law.
Media groups moved for his inhibition on October 15 because he filed a libel case
against Newsbreak founding editor and now Rappler editor-at-large Marites
Danguilan-Vitug in 2010, which they said "indicated that he sees nothing
inherently wrong about libel, in general, or cyberlibel, in particular."
Velasco filed 13 counts of libel against Vitug in 2010 for her story "SC Justice in
Partisan Politics?" that was published on the websites of ABS-CBN news
andNewsbreak.
In that story, Vitug wrote about Velasco's alleged role in the campaign of his son
Lord Allan, for the lone congressional post of Marinduque. Vitug interviewed
residents who said that the magistrate invited them to join his sons ticket, with a
promise that he would help fund their campaign.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Center for Media Freedom
and Responsibility, and the Philippine Press Institute said Velasco should inhibit
because online libel is one of the provisions in the Cybercrime law which should
be nullified.
"The suits were filed in connection with stories that ran online a question
directly posed by the 15 petitions challenging the Cybercrimes Act," the media
groups said.
The case will now have to be re-raffled to another magistrate. - Rappler.com