Ruben O. Fruto

Ruben O. Fruto was a Partner in the law firm of Feria, Feria, Lugtu & La O’ and the Oben, Fruto & Ventura Law Office, and a Professor of Law in the Ateneo De Manila University and Lyceum of the Philippines. He handled corporate and litigation work, covering civil cases (contracts, commercial transactions, maritime, estate, family relations, transportation, and other civil cases), labor cases and administrative proceedings. He also had extensive appellate practice before the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. He also served as a Consultant of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 1986, his Private Law Practice was interrupted after the EDSA Revolution when he was invited to join the government firstly as Chief Legal Counsel and Senior Vice-President of the Development Bank of the Philippines and later on as Undersecretary of Finance, heading the Revenue Operations Group supervising the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs. He also served as Vice-Chairman of the Garments and Textile Export Board, Commissioner of the Export Processing Zone, Director of the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines; Chairman of the Board of Capitol Development Bank, Board Member of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Authority, Board Member of the Mactan International Airport Authority, Deputy General Counsel of the Davide Commission, and Chief Legal Counsel of the Feria Fact Finding Committee created to investigate the Garchitorena land scam. In 1991, he was the Bar Examiner for Taxation Law.

He resumed private law practice on June 1991. Aside from engaging in corporate and civil law litigation, he also served as director of several corporations and is an active member and officer of various professional, civic and religious organizations. He was also President of the Philippine Bar Association. Presently, he is an Of Counsel of Feria Tantoco Daos Law Offices.

As a private law practitioner, he assisted as Filipino Co-Counsel of the American Lead Counsel for the 10,000 victims of the human rights violations committed during martial law, when the victims filed a lawsuit for damages against Ferdinand Marcos before the District Court of Hawaii, U.S.A., which resulted in the award of the principal sum of U.S. $1.2 Billion on February 23, 1994.

Mr. Fruto obtained his Bachelor of Laws in 1961 from the Ateneo de Manila University and was admitted to the Philippine Bar on February 1962. In 2015, he was awarded as the Distinguished Alumnus in Law Practice by the Ateneo De Manila Law Alumni Association.