ANNANDALE, VA, July 02, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ramon Antonio Planas Paterno has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Mr. Paterno's illustrious career as a lawyer is most highlighted by his extensive contributions to international development finance. In March 1980, the then Assistant General Counsel of International Finance Corporation (IFC) Walter F. Norris interviewed candidates in Manila. Mr. Norris chose him for further interviews in Washington, D.C. Upon returning to Manila, IFC confirmed his appointment, cancelling interviews with two other candidates. From a two-year term, his appointment was regularized to last until retirement. The mission of IFC—a private sector affiliate of the World Bank—was "to promote private sector development in developing countries, which will reduce poverty and improve people's lives." After 28 years, Mr. Paterno retired as Senior Counsel on May 2008. His true worth is best encapsulated when Mr. Norris formally endorsed Mr. Paterno to Chief Counsel on June 5, 2000, commending "Ramon for his personal and professional integrity in the Philippine business and legal community" and affirming that he "has one of the best legal minds in the Department"!

Mr. Paterno secured IFC's "privileges and immunities" notably in South Korea, Kazakhstan, & the Philippines—the latter involving direct discussions with Prime Minister Cesar Virata. His originally-researched Policy Papers, reasoned out via legal memoranda addressed to the General Counsel Jose E. Camacho and the Deputy General Counsel Mr. Norris, led to groundbreaking investments made by IFC during its fledgling years. His global experience was enhanced when he was tasked by the General Counsel to do global research on investment security devices. Mr. Paterno's push for the passage by the Kazakhstan Parliament of a "privileges and immunities" legislation benefited not only the IFC, but also the World Bank itself—as formally acknowledged with deep appreciation by World Bank Lead Counsel Alan J. Siff on April 15, 2005—and other international financial institutions like the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agreement and the Asian Development Bank.

His experience in IFC financing included loans, loan syndications, convertible bonds/loans with stock options, agency credit lines, and/or grants. Working with leading local counsel and transaction counsel, he engaged in common law, civil law, and shariat law.

During his highly-productive tenure Mr. Paterno, as IFC Lawyer-in-Charge responsible for negotiating the investment documents—and as an integral part of the IFC project team—closed 200 projects spanning over 70 countries and over 25 global "missions" in emerging economies and pioneer countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe. His keen sense of fairness served as the hallmark of his negotiations. His projects covered a management buy-out in Pakistan, promoting private markets in Romania, partnering with the Global Environmental Facility, residential mortgage loans, small- and medium-scale financing, a ship-financing project in Indonesia, the wood sector in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the hotel sector in Turkey, the textile and education sectors in Pakistan, the telecommunications sector in the Dominican Republic, multiple sales of shares in South Korea and Taiwan, a secondary offer of shares in Indonesia, a Black Sea Fund and an Emerging Middle East Fund, an energy lighting efficiency project in Hungary, and the health, banking and mining sectors in the Philippines.

Notably, Mr. Paterno's extraction of an exceptional 12-year "save free and harmless" clause from a multinational corporation in a complex management buy-out deal—which he negotiated in Pakistan, London and Brussels at the height of the Gulf War alongside the Investment Department Director Mr. Declan Duff—enabled prompt urgent disbursements. This earned him the highest respect from the Director, who, shortly thereafter, would ascend to Senior Vice Presidency.

Mr. Paterno's expertise deepened with his training of lawyers and investment officers on the nuances of IFC's Articles of Agreement (Charter), especially the underlying business rationale of IFC's policies. During negotiations with global clients he imparted this knowledge, enabling clients to more fully understand IFC's complex investment documentation and policies. Respect for his fairness and integrity served him well as Chair of the Legal Department's Awards Committee.

One Investment Department Director wrote, "Ramon is an excellent lawyer. I am particularly impressed by the many in-depth legal analysis he makes, where he solves a complex question in a manner that is understandable for the client to understand. This ability is a great asset and in my view under appreciated. I trust Ramon's judgment and value his opinions. Besides, he is a gentleman and very much appreciated and liked." More succinctly: "He is one of the Corporation's best counsels." An "Executive Vice President (Lars Thunnel) Corporate Award FY'06," for his contribution to the privatization of the Kenya and Uganda railways, corroborated his overall value to the IFC.

Prior to IFC, Mr. Paterno served as the Assistant Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at First Philippine Holdings Company (FPHC) from January 1, 1979 to June 30, 1980. He had honed his legal acumen in the United States as a stagiere at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (1975 in Washington, D.C. and 1976 in New York City); and as Law Clerk at Ropes & Gray LLP (1975 in Boston), where he was hand-picked, on a competitive basis, by its Managing Partner Ernest J. Sargeant, lecturer at Harvard and in whose Seminar on Corporate Planning and Counseling he had shared his experience as a corporate law practitioner.

Mr. Paterno was recruited by SyCip Salazar Luna Manalo & Feliciano/ later SyCip Salazar Feliciano Hernandez & Castillo Law Offices (SyCip Law for short) in the Philippines on January 1, 1972 after his stint as the sole lawyer in a labor office of Wallem Philippines Shipping Inc. Mr. Feliciano would endorse him for post-LL.M. training with Cleary Gottlieb. Mr. Paterno was Assistant Corporate Secretary to the client-companies serviced by the Partners/Corporate Secretaries. He served as Conference Rapporteur for the Committee on Multinational Corporations chaired by Mr. Feliciano at the Manila World Law Conference (1977). After Mr. Paterno's promotion to Senior Associate on January 1, 1978, he resigned irrevocably, effective January 1, 1979, the date he was recruited by FPHC (the parent company of 16 subsidiaries and two affiliated companies), in order to organize from the outset and head its legal department.

Mr. Paterno's Jesuit education from Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) began from his grade school days spent at the war-torn Padre Faura campus marked by quonset-hut classrooms, continued with his high school days at the campus on Loyola Heights. Notably, at the Commencement Exercises, the H.S. Principal Rev. Vincent McNally, S.J. announced his surprise Special Gold Medal in Latin for topping the Inter-Ateneo Latin exams with a score of 99.94%. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in College with First Honors and Departmental Honors. Nominated by ADMU's Rector and President Very Rev. James F. Donelan, S.J., and Dean of the College Rev. Nicholas A. Kunkel, S.J., Mr. Paterno was adjudged "The Nation's Most Outstanding Student of the Philippines of 1966," presented by Secretary of Education Carlos P. Romulo.

Mr. Paterno also received his Bachelor of Laws '70 from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law, where he was admitted as an Entrance Scholar. During his first two years of law studies, he taught Philippine history at the neighboring Ateneo High School (1967-1968). UP Law Dean Irene Cortes would appoint him as Notes and Comments Editor of the Philippine Law Journal. He served as her summer Law Researcher. Representing his law Alma Mater, Mr. Paterno won the National Impromptu Speaking Championship. He captained the UP Law team which won the graduate-level national debates, topped off by "Best Debater" award. The National Union of Students sponsored both National Speech Festivals. He was a University Councillor and guest columnist of the Philippine Collegian. Student Council Chairman Barbican conferred on him the Wenceslao Q. Vinzons Award for Leadership.

Mr. Paterno and his wife Isabelita obtained their respective Master of Laws degrees from Harvard Law School in 1975— the first Filipino married couple to obtain their LL.M.s at Harvard. UP Law Dean Irene Cortes and Supreme Court Chief Justice Querube Makalintal vouched for his academic excellence, moral character and integrity.

Mr. Paterno is a Life Member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (since June 21, 2009). He was elected Executive Secretary of the Legal Management Council of the Philippines (comprising leading external counsel and house counsel). He was a member of the Washington Foreign Law Society (upon the invitation of its Vice President Eugene J. Morans on October 22, 1983) and the Harvard Club of New York City.

Mr. Paterno's illustrious legal career is reinforced as well by his stellar life-time deeds as "activist," "diplomat" and "advocate"—marked by a sense of history, a spirit of service and volunteerism, and passionate pursuit of excellence.

Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Emmanuel Pelaez and Mrs. Maribel Ongpin appointed him Chair of the Philippine-American Support Committee of the Jaime V. Ongpin Institute of Business & Government (PASCO-JVOIBG), Washington, D.C. Chapter. Mr. Paterno negotiated an innovative debt-equity swap with two U.S. banks. The donee Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility used the funds as seed money. The other donee Ateneo School of Government used the funds for its Presidential Elections Fact-Check project. Mr. Paterno founded an educational trust that benefitted 16 UP scholars. Ten were personally funded. He served twice as President of the IFC-World Bank Group and IMF Filipino Association. He implemented his "Adopt a Primary Rural School" pilot projects, which had placed second as "The People's Choice Most Easy to Replicate" project at the World Bank's 2002 Development Marketplace.

Mr. Paterno was appointed Chapter Commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKR), Washington, D.C. Chapter, with 3rd-degree rank.

Inspired by the American Jesuit' motto of "mens sana in corpore sano" (sound mind in a sound body), Mr. Paterno excelled in his non-academic pursuits. He was College Student Council President, Editor-in-Chief of the Guidon (the University publication), and Air Force ROTC Model Squadron Commander. His passion for competitive sports included playing organized basketball for his Ateneo H.S. SCA team. Mr. Paterno was chess champion during his Ateneo high school and college years (twice). On a lighter note, his "game of the century" was a 62-move fighting draw with Russian Grandmaster Leonid Shamkovich at a simultaneous exhibition (New York Chess City, 1975).

Mr. Paterno's "activism," as a UP law student, includes confronting President Ferdinand E. Marcos face-to-face with his "broken promises to the Filipino people"—on the occasion of the UP Diliman Faculty demonstration in 1968 inside Malacanang amidst Congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices. In 1974, his application in 1974 for travel—to pursue his LL.M. studies at Harvard—was initially rejected by the Travel Committee chaired by General Fabian Ver. However, the intervention by the Supreme Court Associate (later Supreme Court Chief) Justice Fred Ruiz Castro, who vouched for Mr. Paterno's "good conduct" remedied the injustice. After becoming a resident of the United States, Mr. Paterno, as outgoing President of the UP Alumni Association, penned a resolution asking President Marcos to step down (dated February 23, 1986, on the cusp of the People Power revolution).

In "diplomacy," Mr. Paterno, then a student, was appointed by the Department of Foreign Affairs as the Junior Delegate to the now-defunct SEATO Conference in Manila. Traveling on a "Special Passport," he served as an unofficial ambassador of goodwill on his four-day visits to Asian cities of his choice (Calcutta, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taiwan, and Tokyo)— his prize as the "The Nation's Most Outstanding Student of the Philippines 1966." Appointed by Asst. Secretary for UN Affairs Rafaelita Soriano, Mr. Paterno headed the delegation to the First UN World Youth Assembly, New York City. He was elected by the 700+ membership of the General Assembly as Asia's Representative to the 18-member Steering Committee. His knowledge of Spanish helped him win over a sizable bloc. The Steering Committee then elected him as sole Vice-Chair of the Plenary Session. (The Chair, from Switzerland, had been pre-selected by the organizers.)

As "advocate," Mr. Paterno was recognized with a "Presidential Award for Outstanding Filipinos Overseas" from President Fidel V. Ramos (Heroes Hall, Malacanang, Dec. 17, 1993). His advocacy for the passage of the Philippine Overseas Voting Rights Law is highlighted by his testimony before the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms. As President and Board Chair of the Philippine American Centennial Foundation, and Chair of the Philippine Centennial Coordinating Committee, he steered the celebration of the Centennial of Philippine Independence in the U.S., in fruitful partnership with author and a US career diplomat's accomplished wife Mrs. Margaret Sullivan (June 12, 1998). The Philippines and the Baltic countries were featured at the Smithsonian Mall. Mr. Paterno was guest speaker, together with distinguished historian Bernardita Reyes-Churchill, at the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Sesquicentennial celebrations on June 19, 2011.

Mr. Paterno was honored by his Alma Mater with a "2010 UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award" in "International Development" for his "sterling career in a United Nations-affiliated international financial institution" and legal expertise in the successful implementation of international investment projects "that address environmental protection, human and institutional development, and poverty alleviation."

Significantly, Mr. Paterno takes special pride with his "Best Writer Award in Maritime Law," conferred by the Philippine Maritime League on September 7, 2023. His cover story article had been published in the January-February 2016 issue of the Philippine Maritime Review. He wrote on the Philippines monumental international arbitration win against China, where China's nine-dash claim was declared illegal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas. His intended legal primer—containing his specific recommendations on enforcement and proposed protective clauses in the event of China's bullying insistence on bilateral negotiations—was formally endorsed back in 2016 as "required reading" by then-Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Evan Garcia. Upon Mr. Paterno's request, the recently-retired Ambassador and Mrs. Evan Garcia accepted the award on his behalf.

Mr. Paterno and his wife Isabelita proudly acquired U.S. citizenship on January 9, 2015.

Ramon and Isabelita share a passion for ballroom dancing. Partnering in Open Gold, they won as U.S. Amateur National Champions (December 2023 in Houston, Texas and December 2024 in Austin, Texas)—in Smooth and Rhythm Dancing; and as Nine-Dance Champions. They copped their first international title (April 2025 in Marbella, Spain) as Rhythm and Smooth Champions, and as Nine-Dance Champions. They won as Amateur Champions in Smooth and Rhythm Dancing at the 99th Anniversary of the Blackpool (England) Open Championships, held at Empress Ballroom, Winter Gardens.

Mr. Paterno plans to highlight the legacy of his great-uncle, Pedro Alejandro Paterno for his heroic deeds. Duly-honored in 1972 with a national stamp as "Diplomat of the Philippine Revolution," Pedro Alejandro Paterno brokered peace between the Philippine revolutionary forces and the Spanish colonial forces; raised national consciousness with his "Ninay," the first Filipino novel; and served as President of the Malolos Congress that enacted the Malolos Constitution, meriting for the Philippines her well-deserved title of "First Constitutional Republic in Asia." It is Mr. Paterno's hope that national unity will prevail over the divisive Marxist-based ideology of class-conflict directed against his ancestor.

Mr. Paterno's dream is that his lifelong advocacy for Rule of Law under a Constitutional Republic—the cornerstones of both the United States and the Philippines—may serve as common ground, as moral foundation, and as a bridge towards achieving peace and enhancing the prosperity of the citizens of both countries! God bless!

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