A SEASONED lawyer and pious Thomasian has passed away last Aug. 19 at the age of 80.
An Outstanding Thomasian Alumnus Award honoree in 2004, Atty. Roman Mabanta Jr. was commended for his excellent performance in the legal profession and in the academe.
“He (Mabanta) was an epitome of the real Catholic lawyer,” said former Faculty of Civil Law Dean Amado Dimayuga. “He is a great loss to the legal profession.”
An expert in commercial law, Mabanta concentrated his practice on litigation, counseling of corporations, banking, maritime commerce, and insurance. He, together with other lawyers, ran a law firm at Makati City.
Aside from being an outstanding alumnus, Mabanta also taught in the Faculty of Civil Law from 1982 to 2001.
“Not many know that the deanship was offered to him after I retired in 2001,” Dimayuga said. “Had he accepted it, he would have made a very good dean.”
Mabanta took up Law in UST after graduating from the University of the Philippines in 1944. He later went to America in 1950 to pursue post-graduate studies in the Columbia University School of Law and Harvard University School of Law.
Mabanta was a founding partner of one of the country’s top law firms, the Romulo, Mabanta, Buenaventura, Sayoc and De los Angeles Law Offices.
Apart from being a lawyer and a professor, Mabanta was also a civic worker and an active member of the Church.
He was once a president of a school for the deaf and a delegate to the Second Plenary Council in 1992.
A father of 10, Mabanta died due to lung complications. His remains were laid to rest last Aug. 24, at the Crypt of Christ the King Parish in Quezon City.
