Presbitero Velasco Jr.

The Honorable Presbitero J. Velasco Jr.
Portrait, 2021
Governor of Marinduque
Incumbent
Assumed office June 30, 2019
Vice Governor	Romulo Bacorro Jr. (2019-2022) Adeline Angeles (2022-present)
Preceded by	Romulo Bacorro Jr.
157th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
In office March 31, 2006 – August 8, 2018
Appointed by	Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Preceded by	Artemio Panganiban
Succeeded by	Jose Reyes Jr.
Associate Justice of the Philippine Court of Appeals
In office April 22, 1998 – August 8, 2003
Appointed by	Joseph Estrada
Judicial and Bar Council Representative from the Integrated Bar
In office January 7, 1993 – March 22, 1995
Appointed by	Fidel V. Ramos
Preceded by	Leon Garcia Jr.
Succeeded by	Francisco Santiago
Personal details
Born	(1948-08-08) August 8, 1948 (age 76) Pasay, Rizal (currently, Pasay City), Philippines
Political party	PFP (2024–present)
Other political affiliations	PDP–Laban (2018–2024)
Spouse	Lorna Quinto Velasco
Children	Vincent Michael Lord Allan Tricia Nicole
Alma mater	University of the Philippines (BA, LL.B)
Affiliation	Sigma Rho

Presbitero Jose Velasco Jr. (born August 8, 1948) is the incumbent Governor of Marinduque and was a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on March 31, 2006.

Born on August 8, 1948, in Pasay, 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]

Velasco engaged in private law practice for 20 years before joining the public sector as a regular member of the Judicial and Bar Council in 1993.

He 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 2003.

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.

Velasco was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on March 31, 2006.

In 2018, he filed his candidacy for Governor of Marinduque for the 2019 elections in which he won ending the rule of the Reyes clan, which has ruled Marinduque for almost two decades.

Justice Velasco is married to Lorna Quinto-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.^[2]

• Manotoc v. Court of Appeals (2006) — on requisites for valid service of summons
• Spouses Algura v. LGU of the City of Naga (2006) — on exemption of indigents from filing fees
• Republic of the Philippines v. SC Chief Justice Sereno (2018) — concurring and dissenting opinion on the Quo warranto petition against Maria Lourdes Sereno

• Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr. (Official Supreme Court Webpage)