Berberabe: CEO, law dean, public servant, lifelong learner
To prove that women can excel in any field, one just needs to look at Dean Darlene Berberabe of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman College of Law and her extensive experience in the government, private sector and academe.
A former Philosophy instructor at UP, she served as a chief legal counsel of multinational company Procter & Gamble (P&G) and was Pag-Ibig fund CEO and president from 2010 to 2017.
In her professional journey, Berberabe has learned to embrace any uncertainties, having described herself as a “person who does not plan one’s career” during the 2024 Asia Women’s Forum.
“Do not think that you are too old to study,” she said as one of her tips on how to prepare for any opportunity. “I would like to believe that I am a lifelong learner.”
Her work has not gone unnoticed. She has since been recognized as an Outstanding CEO in Asia by the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific, Outstanding CEO in the public sector by Asia CEO, among the Ten Outstanding Women in Nation Service in 2013, and now one of this year’s Inquirer Women of Power awardees.
Summa cum laude
In 1989, Berberabe graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman as summa cum laude with a degree in Philosophy. She then became the first female Philosophy instructor of the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, where she taught for 10 years.
“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, but at the time [I graduated], [UP’s] Philosophy department did not have any female teachers. So I applied,” she shared in the Inquirer article “Moving on from Pag-Ibig.”
Berberabe lamented that her salary as an instructor gave her “enough money to pay for gasoline, but I did not have enough to buy a car.” Thus, despite her interest in the discipline, even completing a master’s degree in Philosophy in 1995, she decided to become a lawyer.
“I had two siblings who studied law,” Berberabe said, speaking to an audience in 2017 during a TEDx event at UP Diliman. “I said, ‘I need to catch up.’ So I enrolled in a working program at UP Law.”
She shared how she became a working student, teaching Philosophy in the morning and studying at night. Her efforts soon paid off when she graduated as class salutatorian at the UP College of Law in 1999.
She landed a job at a law firm in Manila, specializing in labor law, before eventually joining P&G Philippines as its chief legal counsel.
After working at P&G for six years, Berberabe said the company had been planning to send her to work in Singapore.
Pag-Ibig stint
But she faced a dilemma when she received a call from then Vice President Jejomar Binay who had asked her to become the CEO of the Pag-Ibig Fund.
While initially declining the offer, she was convinced to stay in the country and become a public servant after a second meeting with the vice president.
Although she admittedly had no background in the housing sector, Berberabe thought, “Well, I study hard, I am good at asking questions… I think I have a good shot at making it work.”
“I believe that if I do not accept a role only because it is hard, I would not really know if I could perform well in it… If I try and I fail, I have accepted that I am not the first one to fail, so it is not a big deal. Pick up the pieces, and look for the next endeavor,” she added.
It was a decision that later brought her to a Senate hearing in 2015 due to allegations of an anomalous contract awarded by Pag-Ibig to a security agency—a challenging episode she was able to overcome.
Private sector
“I would like to believe that we were able to fend off all the challenges,” she said at the 2024 Asia Women’s Forum. “There is no certificate [from the Senate] where you will be absolved of all their investigation, but if there are no findings, then that already is our certificate.”
After serving as a public servant, Berberabe soon found herself in the private sector when she became head of local life science equipment and services provider Philab Industries Inc. in 2017.
While health care was another unfamiliar sector for the lawyer, Berberabe believed that “I work hard, I’m dedicated, I’m focused… I’m willing to learn, and I work well [both] in teams and individually.”
“I’m always guided by the question: where can I contribute the most?” she said in the Inquirer article.
Most important role
Though she has since resigned from Philab, Berberabe currently holds top positions in the academe as the third female UP College of Law dean, and in the private sector when she was elected the first female independent director of SM Prime Holdings Inc. in 2021.
“What can I offer to UP Law? I can offer the values of open-mindedness, openness to discourse and professionalism,” Berberabe said in 2023 during the Search for the Next UP College of Law Dean public forum.
The Women of Power Awards particularly took note of her efforts as UP Law Dean to help modernize the criminal justice system. The college recently entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to see how antiquated provisions of the Revised Penal Code can be updated.
She is also among the board of trustees of The Outstanding Women in Nation Service since 2021 as well as the UP Law Alumni Foundation since 2019, and is the vice president for external affairs of the Philippine Heart Association since 2017.
Her “most important role,” however, is being a mother to her daughter, Jamie Lim, who, much like Berberabe, graduated summa cum laude from UP in 2019.
“I am most touched when in one of my birthday celebrations… she said that when she grows up… she wants to be exactly like me. So I think that’s my biggest honor,” said Berberabe.
