LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – An Igorot lawyer was recently chosen by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) as the recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Professional of the Year Award in the field of Social Work for her effective discharge of social responsibility through personal or professional engagement in social-related activities.
PRC Commissioner Atty. Erwin M. Enad, who is the Overall Chairperson for the 2023 PRC Awards, named this year’s recipient of the Outstanding professional of the year Award for Social Work as La Trinidad-based lawyer Mary Inglay G. Capuyan-Fokno.
He said that Atty. Capuyan-Fokno demonstrated her competence and integrity by her meaningful participation in professional activities through the professional organization, significant for the advancement of the social work profession among other related endeavors.
The conferment of the said award to Atty. Capuyan-Fokno will be on December 10, 2023 within the Metro Manila area.
The Outstanding professional of the Year is the highest award bestowed by the PRC upon a professional as recommended by his or her peers for having sufficiently demonstrated professional competence of the highest degree and conducting himself or herself with integrity in the exercise of his or her profession.
The Commission gave the Outstanding Professional of the Year Award to deserving professionals in 1977.
Capuyan-Fokno graduated the course Bachelor of Science in Social Work at the Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental in 1976 and got her Master of Science in Social Work at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City in 1979. She also completed her Bachelor of Laws at the Saint Louis University (SLU) in Baguio City in 1985 and successfully passed the bar in 1991.
She is also a licensed social worker and a real estate broker as part of her promising credentials.
From 2007 to present, she is the school president of the Cordillera Quest: Center for Complementary Education and Social work Services, Inc. and is the senior law practitioner of the Fokno Law Office based in this capital town.
Capuyan served as the chairperson of the La Trinidad People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB) from 2003 to 2012 aside from being a Department Head of the Cordillera Career Development College (CCDC) from 2003 to 2011.
The 69-year-old lawyer-social worker was a recipient of numerous citations for her significant contribution to the advancement of social work in Baguio, Benguet and the Cordillera over the past several decades.
“Social work has been my passion. I always infuse and integrate the values of social work in my law practice and I was able to see the benefits of such endeavor to the litigants,” Atty. Capuyan-Fokno stressed.
She encourages the youth to take up social work for them to be able to be of help to the people in their communities as social work is one of the noble professions that transcends boundaries.
