MS. MARIA TERESA S. SIANGHIO-UBANO graduated from the San Beda College of Law as Class Salutatorian in 1996. She is also a Certified Public Accountant, having graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from the University of Santo Tomas.
After taking the Bar examinations, Ms. Sianghio joined the Special Projects Department of Accralaw as a junior associate. After only an exceptionally short period of three years, she was promoted as Senior Associate in view of her remarkable talent, skills and hard work.
As one of the very few lawyers active in two major practice areas – corporate special projects and taxation – at Accralaw, Ms. Sianghio was immersed in diverse and extensive corporate and special projects and tax practices. Ms. Sianghio’s practice includes, among other things, mergers and acquisitions; public and private debt and equity financings; debt securitization; commercial contract negotiations, loans and investments; incorporation and registration of domestic companies; registration of a branch/representative/ headquarter of multinational companies, joint ventures; BOT transactions; public utilities; environmental law; mining; and tax. She also assumed various directorship and corporate secretarial duties in various local and multinational companies.
As highly effective and creative tax law practitioner, Ms. Sianghio successfully advocated the interests of various clients before the various courts and prepared various opinions and advice on income tax, value added tax, estate tax, donor’s tax, customs duties, protest of assessments, tax/duties refunds and tax credits, estate planning, and local government taxes, such as real property and business taxes.
Ms. Sianghio also served as consultant to the Asian Development Bank (“ADB”) and assisted in the crafting of policies and measures aimed at strengthening our tax laws.