Castro and Arcamo received FLP awards

Mel Joseph G. Castro and Franz Erika Arcamo, paralegals at Badayos & Badayos Law in Cebu City, received awards from the Foundation for Liberty and Prosperity on 16 September 2026. Mel Joseph placed third in the Foundation’s Dissertation Writing Contest for 2025 to 2026, and Franz Erika was selected as a scholar under its Legal Scholarship Program.

Mel Joseph, who completed his Juris Doctor at the University of San Carlos in 2026, was one of three third-place winners in the Dissertation Writing Contest for the academic year 2025 to 2026, for his thesis “The Rule of Law in the Online Casino: The Establishment of Human Rights Guidelines for Electronic Gaming Service Providers in the Philippines.”¹ The contest, which the Foundation runs with Ayala Corporation and the Philippine Association of Law Schools, takes theses from law students and graduate students on the Foundation’s precept of liberty and prosperity under the rule of law. The entries were judged by a board headed by Supreme Court Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting, and the Foundation publishes the winning dissertations on its website.

Franz Erika, who is studying for her Juris Doctor at the University of San Carlos, was one of twenty law students awarded scholarships under the Legal Scholarship Program in 2026.² The program is funded by the Tan Yan Kee Foundation and run with the Philippine Association of Law Schools. It is open to third- and fourth-year students in the top twenty of their batch, at law schools whose passing rate in the 2024 Bar Examinations was above the national rate, and each scholar receives ₱250,000 for tuition, books, and a stipend. The scholars were chosen by a board of judges chaired by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.³

The awards were presented on 16 September 2026 at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City. The certificates carry the signatures of retired Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, who chairs the Foundation, and of the First Lady, Louise Araneta-Marcos, who was the special guest. The Foundation was established in 2011 to promote the philosophy of liberty and prosperity under the rule of law, and it has run the scholarship program since 2016.