Kelvin Chester Lee, a young lawyer with roots in Davao, is set to assume office as the newest commissioner of the corporate watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Yes, Atty. Kelvin Lee is our latest addition as commissioner,” SEC chair Emilio Aquino confirmed to the Inquirer on Saturday.
This makes Lee the fifth member of the SEC en banc. Apart from chair Aquino, the SEC has three other incumbent commissioners: Antonieta Ibe, Ephyro Luis Amatong and Javey Paul Francisco.
Before being enlisted into the SEC, Lee was assistant secretary under Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea from July 2016.
Lee’s public profile showed that before working at Malacañang, Lee was a partner at Teves Cabiten Polinar Lee & Partners Law Office.
He was also a legal columnist at Sunstar Davao newspaper.
In 2015, he was appointed by then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to the 2015 Kadayawan executive committee.
When Mr. Duterte became president in 2016, Lee was appointed assistant secretary in Malacañang in the Office of the Executive Secretary.
Lee was previously an associate lawyer at Siguion Reyna Montecillo & Ongsiako Law Office, where he was was one of the regular rainmakers.
He assisted the defense panel in the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Lee earned his law degree from the Ateneo School of Law in 2008 and his Bachelor of Science in Legal Management degree from Ateneo de Manila University in 2000.
He was an executive editor of the Ateneo Law Journal and a member of the St. Thomas More Debate Society.
As a lawyer, he specialized in litigation/dispute resolution, labor law, corporation law, real estate, business, management, mergers and acquisitions, writing and government liaison.
But while the SEC’s five-member en banc is now complete, another vacancy is coming up soon as Ibe is set to finish her term this March.
Before joining the SEC, Ibe was the first female chair of the Professional Regulation Commission.
She also served as a partner at SGV & Co. for 20 years.
Under the Securities Regulation Code, the Commissioners will continue to serve until a successor is appointed.
Ahead of the midterm elections, Mr. Duterte has until March 29 to make new appointments before the election ban takes effect.