Pablo John Garcia: Following in his father's footsteps
Pablo John Garcia was born in Cebu City on May 19, 1967 as the last of the eight children of Pablo “Pabling” Paras Garcia and Esperanza “Inday” Fiel-Garcia. Although he already had four sons, Pabling apparently waited for his youngest son to come so he could give his name, Pablo, to him. Perhaps he knew from the day his youngest son was born that Pablo John would soon follow in his footsteps.
Pablo John is the youngest brother of Gov. Gwen Garcia, Cebu’s first woman governor, and Winston Garcia, the president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Between Gov. Gwen and Pablo John, there is a 12-year difference. Gov. Gwen is the eldest of the eight children but they are often asked together and separately who between them is older. They both merely find humor here. The age difference did not stop them from forming the solid partnership that called on every Cebuano to “grab the opportunity of a century” as soon as they buckled down to work in July 2004 after a divisive but exciting election.
Like Pabling and Inday, as well as Winston, his eldest brother, Pablo John is a lawyer. His many interests, however, have helped him establish links with movers in the world of business, politics, and even the arts. In “Breakfast at Noon,” a column he wrote for Cebu Daily News and later, Sun.Star Cebu from 1998-2005, he developed a following not only among local readers, but also among those who accessed the online versions of the local papers in other countries. These days, he scratches his literary itch in his blog, www.onion-skinned.com. Pablo John is trained in the classical guitar and can carry his own in standard and reggae songs. He also dabbles in photography and posts his works in pablojohn.multiply.com.
Pablo John attended elementary at the Sacred Heart School for Boys. Early on, he showed signs of excellence already by beating schoolmates from Filipino-Chinese families in a school-wide Chinese oratorical contest.
In high school, he went to the University of the Philippines High School (UP High). In school, Pablo John’s teachers discovered his writing talent and encouraged him to represent the school in many writing contests that he joined and won. He became editor of the high school paper, Tambuli. In his senior year, he showed strains of his political blood when he ran for and won the election for the chairmanship of the Student Council by a landslide. He graduated in 1984, receiving UP High’s prestigious Gold Medal for Journalism.
Because he landed in the top percentile of the college entrance examinations of the Ateneo de Manila University, Pablo John became a Merit Scholar, earning advanced college credits in the Economics Honors Program. But a passion for deeper thought and search for meaning made him shift to Philosophy. He graduated in 1989.
He chose to return to UP in 1989 to earn his law degree. But the demands of the premier and most prestigious law school in the Philippines did not stop him from getting involved in campus activities and politics. Pablo John became the literary editor of The Philippine Collegian, the official school organ of the entire UP System, and the biggest and most respected student paper in the country. In 1992, he topped the Collegian’s editorial exams and became its editor-in-chief. He also became a member of the editorial board of the Philippine Law Journal, the Philippines’ most respected legal publication.
Even while he was studying law, Pablo John was already getting ready for a possible career in legislation. After serving briefly as his father’s chief of staff at the House of Representatives, he became Senior Legislative Officer of the chamber’s Committee on Revision of Laws and Committee on Justice.
After graduating in 1993, he decided to review for the bar by himself using a technique he devised which included at least eight hours of sleep a night, breaks after every 20 pages read, and just taking it easy. This technique worked. Pablo John placed fourth in the 1994 bar exams with a rating of 86.5125%. His father Pabling placed third in the 1951 bar exams.
While waiting for the bar exam results, he was drafted as a junior associate by the Ponce Enrile Cayetano Reyes & Manalastas, the law office founded by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and the late Sen. Rene L. Cayetano. Sen. Cayetano took Pablo John under his wing, and relied on him for legal support in important and controversial cases, including the prosecution of the Manila International Filmfest scandal case. He was also among the pioneers that comprised the legal support for the popular radio and television program “Compañero y Compañera”.
Throughout his stay in Manila, Pablo John took an active role in every election Pabling and Winston were candidates in.
Pablo John returned to Cebu in 1995 to work as a managing partner of Garcia Garcia Ong Vaño, the law firm Winston established. As a young lawyer with little experience, Pablo John, in 1995, pleaded before the Supreme Court in a landmark criminal case, and won the acquittal of his client who was charged with violation of Batas Pambansa Blg. 22, a criminal charge which lawyers then thought was impossible to defend.
The case, Lina Lim Lao versus The Court of Appeals, et al., G.R. No. 119178, 30 June 1997, is now cited by lawyers and jurists in prosecutions involving B.P. 22.
Pablo John soon found himself involved in high-profile cases involving issues of public interest in Cebu. Among the many prominent cases he successfully advocated were:
1. The petition against the preliminary injunction issued by a Cebu trial court to stop the implementation of the South Reclamation Project (SRP). Pablo John successfully pleaded before the Supreme Court the illegality of the preliminary injunction, leading to its lifting. If not for this, the SRP would have been delayed by at least 5 years, if not altogether scrapped.
2. The petition to declare illegal the controversial clamping ordinance of the City of Cebu. The regional trial court of Cebu declared the ordinance illegal, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court, to the relief of motorists in Cebu City.
3. The petition to stop the closure of the first Mactan-Mandaue Bridge. The closure would have greatly inconvenienced millions of users of the first bridge, and was preparatory to the imposition of a toll at the second bridge. Pablo John successfully secured a writ of preliminary injunction against the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to stop the closure. The DPWH eventually abandoned the plan.
In 2002, Pablo John was in New York City, USA, when he was drafted by Juno Healthcare Staffing System, Inc., one of the biggest healthcare staffing agencies in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to serve as its Vice President and Head of International Recruitment.
Upon his visit to Cebu in December 2003, he was greeted by news that his eldest sister Gwen, then consultant to Pabling who was governor, was running for governor. Gwen asked him to stay, to help with the campaign. Pablo John could not say no to the family. So, foregoing what had been shaping up to be a financially rewarding life in the United States, he decided to stay.
Pablo John soon became Gov. Gwen’s strategist and ran her campaign from the background. Pablo John also acted as Gov. Gwen’s chief legal counsel during the canvassing of votes at the Capitol social hall, and was responsible for defeating all legal maneuvers from the other side to delay Gov. Gwen’s proclamation.
When Gov. Gwen came into office on June 30, 2004, she appointed Pablo John as consultant on information, organization and management. As he was in Gov. Gwen’s campaign, Pablo John became her right hand in innovating on the development their father had put in place in his nine years as governor. Pablo John also sits as the governor’s representative in various bodies, including the Provincial School Board, the Personnel Selection Board, the Information and Communication Technology Council and the Economic Enterprise Council.
As consultant on information, he hosted Sugbo Numero Uno, a radio program of the provincial government, on DYHP. The program became so popular that a fans club was later established for its listeners. In Pinamungajan alone, there are over 14,000 members, all of whom are now covered by Philhealth insurance, a service rejected by the Pinamungajan municipal government when the provincial government offered it to them as a partnership for the constituents.
Pablo John has two daughters: Sofia, 8 and Gabriela, 2. He is married to Karen Flores-Garcia. He is registered in Balao, Barili where the Garcias have a farm.
This year, Pablo John turns 40 just a week after the elections. They say life begins at 40. He hopes for him, it will be one that starts in Congress.