Hon. Associate Justice Catherine Triunfante Manahan served as the Chief Legislative Officer of former President of the Senate of the Philippines, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, III, before she was appointed as Associate Justice of the Court of Tax Appeals on December 16, 2016.
Justice Manahan’s working experience is quite extensive. In the private sector, she was a practicing tax lawyer for more than 30 years at the law offices of Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles and Castillo Laman Tan & Pantaleon. This was interspersed with legal and corporate work in various private companies such as Isla Lipana & Co., Petron Corporation, Caltex (Philippines), Inc., and Armon Realty, Inc. In the public sector, she was the Vice President of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation and further seconded to the Department of Finance as Head Revenue Executive Assistant to the Undersecretary for Revenue Operations. Justice Manahan also occupied the positions of: Supervising Rural Organization and Education Officer, Rural Workers Office, Department of Labor & Employment; Supervising Revenue Planning Officer, Bureau of Internal Revenue; legal research assistant, University of the Philippines Law Center; consultant to the Office of the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the academe, she is currently a professorial lecturer at the UP Diliman College of Law and was previously a part-time faculty member of De La Salle University and Saint Scholastica’s College, Manila.
Justice Manahan is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts major in Political Science, magna cum laude, at the UP Diliman College of Arts and Sciences and Bachelor of Laws at the UP Diliman College of Law. She completed her Masters in Business Administration at the Graduate School of the Ateneo de Manila University in Rockwell, Makati City, and also earned some units for the Doctorate Program in Public Administration of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance.
Justice Manahan’s professional and civic affiliations consist of the Tax Management Association of the Philippines, Committee on Taxation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UP Women Lawyers’ Circle, Inc., the National Accreditation Board, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Couples for Christ, Inc.
Her vast experience enabled Justice Manahan to publish various tax articles for almost 7 years in the weekly column of the Business World entitled “Taxwise or Otherwise” and to author 4 books, namely: Know Your Benefits (2013), The Basics of Tax Compliance (2015), TRAIN LAW vs NIRC (2018), and Taxpayer’s Guide (2019).
