Fejrdinand Hidalgo joined SRMO in 1989 as an associate lawyer handling tax, corporate and
related labor matters. In 1996, he was promoted to the partnership where he concentrated on handling tax and related issues before the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, Court of Tax Appeals and the Supreme Court.
Hidalgo is currently the Head of SRMO’s Tax Practice Group which is composed of lawyers focused on providing tax and related services on matters involving start-up business operations, corporate structures, fiscal incentive applications, customs and tax investigations, and other government compliance requirements.
Hidalgo earned his Bachelor of Science Major in Accounting at San Beda College in 1983 and his law degree at the Ateneo Law School in 1988. He is a member of the Tax Management Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
For his legal advice and expertise, contact his office at:
Siguion Reyna Montecillo & Ongsiako
4th & 6th Flrs., Citibank Center, 8741 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City, Phils.
Telephone +63 (2) 810-02-82; +63 (2) 819-14-98
www.srmo-law.com general@srmo-law.com
Firm Profile : We Are A Full-Service Firm
Our law firm provides the full range of legal services for any activity involved in doing business in the Philippines. Our practice areas cover a wide range of legal problems and issues. We have an extensive general practice in corporate and commercial law, labor and employment law, civil/corporate/labor/criminal litigation, alternative dispute resolution, banking, securities, insurance, intellectual property, tax, product liability, commercial real estate transactions, computer and internet law, aviation and maritime law. We have been recognized by international publications as offering highly specialized services in areas such as dispute resolution, M&A, project finance, and labor relations.
Diverse Clients, Extensive Experience
Our expertise comes from having dealt with a wide range of clients and the legal challenges facing them. With a solid domestic client base consisting of the Philippines’ largest corporations as well as some of its most eminent individuals and families, we also represent clients from all over the world. The firm counts many Fortune 500 companies from the United States, Canada, Europe (primarily the UK, Germany, Sweden and Italy), Japan and Southeast Asia (primarily Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong) among its international clients, together with a majority of the Philippines’ Top 200 corporations. Our clients have interests in various industries, including airlines, international banks, manufacturers, telecommunication companies, media, and power and utility companies. A testament to our consistency and excellence is that some clients have been with us since the early part of the last century.
We are the Philippine member of the TAGLaw international alliance of law firms. The firm also regularly corresponds with several international law firms, and has acted as Philippine counsel for many international transactions.
Traditional Values, Modern Thinking
Our practice remains steeped in traditional values that have guided a century of law practice. While we have earned our reputation for professionalism and excellence, we also take pride in being “cutting edge.” We apply the latest legal and “out-of-the-box” thinking to a client’s problem, approaching it creatively, in a multi- disciplinary manner. This is due in large part to the fact that we hire and train lawyers not only on the basis of their excellent academic credentials from the finest schools (several of our lawyers have postgraduate degrees from foreign universities) but also on their ability to formulate innovative, unconventional solutions to legal problems.
It is no surprise that many of our law firm’s alumni have gone on to contribute to the development of Philippine law, jurisprudence and politics, as legislators, cabinet secretaries, founders of new law firms, and Justices of the Supreme Court. Our offices have always been located in the Philippines’ central business district. Today, our offices are in Citibank Center – in the heart of the country’s financial center, Makati City – where our law library is located.
We’re Proud Of Our History
Our law firm was founded in 1901, and has a reputation as the oldest continuously operating law office in the country. The Philippines at the turn of the 20th century was a colony of the United States. Manila – already a hub of Southeast Asian trade – had become the main American outpost in Asia. Two American lawyers, John W. Hausserman – formerly of the
U.S. Judge Advocate General’s Office – and Charles Cohn, were the firm’s founding partners.
In 1903, the Cohn & Hausserman Law Office was appointed the Philippine Branch of the Coudert Brothers, a New York law firm (in a nod to tradition, the firm’s cable address was “TREDOUC” – the reverse of “COUDERT”). When the Coudert Brothers closed their Philippine Branch in 1907, Cohn & Hausserman continued their practice, later merging it with the law firm of Ortigas and Fisher. Hausserman would later establish Benguet Consolidated, the pioneer in Philippine gold mining, while Fisher would become a justice of the Philippine Supreme Court.
In 1923, Hausserman, Ortigas, Cohn & Fisher merged with Kincaid, Perkins & Kincaid, which later became Fisher, Dewitt, Perkins & Brady, after other American partners joined the practice. A notable event occurred in 1936, when Alfonso Ponce Enrile, one of the most noted trial lawyers of his time, became the first Filipino partner, and the firm became known as Dewitt, Perkins and Ponce Enrile. From that time on, the engagement of American lawyers ceased, and the firm evolved to be entirely Filipino.
Leonardo Siguion Reyna and Manuel Montecillo joined the firm in 1948 and became General Partners in 1961. Both Siguion Reyna (“Sig”) and Montecillo (“Monte”) continued practicing until they passed away in 2010 and 2011, respectively. With more than 60 years of active legal practice, Sig and Monte were the longest- serving legal practitioners at the time of their demise. Oscar Ongsiako, the third name partner, passed away in 1995. Keeping to tradition, our firm’s leadership continues to be lodged with our General Partners. Our Chairman, Rolando Mario Villonco, was elevated to the General Partnership in 1996. Cesar Manalaysay, Mario Andres and Edgardo Balois became General Partners in 2011.
Today, images of our name partners line the walls of our offices – a reminder to our incumbents that we have a legacy of service to live up to, that we belong to an institution that has been an integral part of Philippine business for more than a century, and that we have an obligation to ensure that the tradition of excellence, begun and nurtured by our predecessors, will continue.
