Who is Anna Liza Logan, Marcos’ new chief lawyer?

Lawyer Anna Liza Logan, Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs, is President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s new Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, Malacañang announced on Tuesday, December 16.

Logan steps into a post last held by the late Juan Ponce Enrile, who had held the position since the beginning of the Marcos administration. It will be an interesting shift for the 51-year-old lawyer, who has mostly kept a low in the administration. 

Her profile, posted on the Philippine National Railways website, characterizes her as someone with “very extensive law practice in Civil and Criminal Litigation; Family, Labor and Human Settlements Adjudication Commission Cases, Corporate and Commercial practice for financial technology companies, real estate development entities.”

She was an associate of the law firm Agabin Verzola Hermoso Layaoen & De Castro, whose partners include Pacifico Agabin, counsel for impeached and convicted president Joseph “Erap” Estrada. 

Logan then went on to be junior partner at Marcos Ochoa Serapio and Tan (MOST), the now-defunct law firm of First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos. In 2019, Logan co-founded Logan Masukat Ronulo Huang Law Office. 

Logan earned her law degree from San Beda University and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1998. 

As Deputy Executive Secretary, Logan wielded influence that went beyond just legal affairs. Sources indicate that it was her and her office that also played a role in vetting appointees in government. 

Before her appointment as the President’s chief lawyer, Logan applied to be Ombudsman and was considered a top candidate for the post, alongside Philippine Competition Commission and former Commission on Audit chairperson Mike Aguinaldo and eventual Ombudsman, former justice chief Jesus Crispin Remulla. Logan got the nod of five out of six members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC). 

As Ombudsman applicant, Logan proposed an anti-corruption plan and said she would scrap a Samuel Martires-era memorandum that severely restricted public access to the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth of government officials. Rules have since been relaxed under current Ombudsman Remulla. 

Despite her close ties to the First Lady and her role as Deputy Executive Secretary, Logan said during her JBC interview that she has not been involved in any political campaign and does not engage in any partisan political activities. – with reports from Jairo Bolledo/Rappler.com