COMPANY HISTORY

The firm was founded in Makati City on July 7, 1997 by Atty. Rodel M. Batocabe (UP Law Class of 1991).

Atty. Batocabe started his career with Chavez Laureta and Associates Law Offices immediately after passing the bar examination in 1992. In 1995, he, together with three other UP Law alumni, formed the law firm of Roque Butuyan Batocabe and Gangoso. For two years, Atty. Batocabe was the Managing Partner of the said firm until he decided to establish his own practice.

For the next ten years, the Firm, under the name of Batocabe & Associates Law Offices, was a sole proprietorship with four associate lawyers. In July 2001, the Firm transferred from Makati City to Prestige Tower, Ortigas Center in Pasig City. In 2007, considering its growing clientele in the Bicol region, the Firm also established its own offices in Legazpi City with an initial complement of two lawyers, headed by Atty. Benigno Tolosa, a former provincial prosecutor of Albay. 

Batocabe and Associates Law Offices has slowly but steadily grown through the years. Atty. Rodel M. Batocabe was elected as a member of the House of Representatives in the 16th, 17th and 18th Congress of the Philippines. In July 2010, the Firm accepted two associate lawyers as partners.

In December 2018, after the untimely demise of Congressman Batocabe, the practice turned over to his son, Atty. Justin Caesar Anthony D. Batocabe.

Atty. Justin Batocabe would be appointed as a Director at the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Management of the firm turned over to Atty. Marisol M. Boiser for the next three years.

Currently, the firm is managed by Atty. Ymil Rjiv Dela Torre Matba.

CONG. RODEL M.  BATOCABE was the President of Ako Bicol Party List, the first-place party-list in the 2010 and 2016 elections.

Upon graduating as high school valedictorian from Aquinas University Science Oriented High School-Legazpi City in 1982, he entered the University of the Philippines as a scholar and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1986 as a Dean’s Medalist. He then entered the UP College of Law as a working student to finance his studies.

He initially worked as Researcher at Health Action Information Network   and as Graduate Assistant at the UP-Graduate School and thereafter, Research Assistant at the UP College of Education.  In his last two years at UP Law, he was employed at the House of Representatives as Legislative Staff Chief.  Eighteen years after he left Congress in 1992, Rep. Batocabe never imagined he will be back again not as an employee but as member of Congress.

Cong. Batocabe graduated in 1991 from the UP College of Law, with honors, was awarded as the Most Outstanding Law Intern, and passed the Bar the following year.

Cong. Batocabe was an active leader of Bicolano organizations since his student days at the University of the Philippines. He was a delegate and participant to various international conferences in Asia, Europe, Australia, United States and Latin America. He authored and co-authored various laws especially on education, health, good governance and livelihood.  For this, he was recognized as the most prolific party list lawmaker in the 16th Congress. Cong. Batocabe was the President and head of the Party-List Coalition, a 50-member bloc in Congress, composed of party-list representatives. In the 16th Congress, he pushed for the creation in the House of Representatives of the Committee on Climate Change for which he became its first Chairperson. He used to chair the Committee on Bicol Recovery and Economic Development.

During the 17th Congress, he was a member of the prestigious House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, the Joint Congressional Power Commission, Oversight Sub-Committee on Legislative Franchise, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Dangerous Drugs and Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability. He was likewise a deputized member of the Board of Trustees of Bicol State College of Applied Science and Technology.

He is survived by his wife, Gertrudes Molina Duran, a fellow Bicolano and UP graduate, with whom he has two children - Justin, a BS Economics (Cum laude) and Juris Doctor Graduate of the University of the Philippines, and Kiel, a Political Science graduate of De La Salle University.

For all his accomplishments, Cong. Rodel M. Batocabe was proudest to receive the 2017 University of the Philippines’ Distinguished Alumnus Awardee for Public Service and Good Governance.