ABOUT PAFLL
The Philippine Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (PAFLL) is an organization of linguists, language specialists/educators/researchers, judges, lawyers, legal researchers, court interpreters, court stenographers, and police investigators. It is dedicated to working on cases that call for applying linguistics/language and scientific methods in crime investigation and legal proceedings, with the primary aim of improving the system of delivering justice to the people.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
PAFLL By-Laws
Board of Trustees
Marilu Rañosa-Madrunio, PhD (President)
As an applied linguist, Dr. Marilu Madrunio became interested in forensic linguistics after undergoing intensive training in Malaysia in 2012 at the International Summer School in Forensic Linguistic Analysis (ISSFLA) facilitated by Prof. Emeritus Malcolm Coulthard and Dr. Krzysztof Kredens of Aston University, UK. Since then, her research interests have focused on forensic linguistics, particularly courtroom discourse, crisis negotiations, and threat communication. Her most recent work is a co-authored publication, Forensic Linguistics in the Philippines: Origins, Developments, and Directions, published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press (CUP). She served as a member-at-large of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL) from 2019 to 2023. She continues to mentor undergraduate and graduate students interested in forensic linguistics/language and the law.
Ma. Kaela Joselle R. Madrunio (Secretary)
Ms. Kaela Madrunio is an MA candidate in Forensic Linguistics at the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL), Aston University in Birmingham, UK. Her MA dissertation focuses on evidentiality, epistemicity, and stance-taking of courtroom interactants in select Philippine court trials. Her research interests include emergency calls, authorship analysis, fraud and deception, and crisis negotiations. She has published at least two research articles in Scopus-indexed journals: 3L: Linguistics, Language, and Literature: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies (September 2022) and the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (October 2023). In May 2024, she became an associate member of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP).
Rachelle Ballesteros-Lintao, PhD (Treasurer)
Dr. Rachelle Lintao, a full professor at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, the Philippines, is the incumbent chair of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Letters, and the program lead of the English Language Studies Cluster in the Graduate School. She is the president of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines, the country representative of Clarity (an international plain language organization), and the country and language representative of the Localization and Standardization Committee of the International Plain Language Federation. Dr. Lintao has published works on the comprehensibility, readability, and simplification of legal documents and police interviewing practices in the Philippines. A member of the ImpleMendez, she is involved in a European project on Establishing Networks to Implement the Principles of Effective Interviewing for Investigations.
Isabel Picornell, PhD MCSFS (Board Member)
Dr. Isabel Picornell is a consultant Forensic Linguist, providing forensic linguistic services to the investigative and intelligence sectors. She holds a PhD in Forensic Linguistics from Aston University in the UK and is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, her research interest being authorship style in deceptive contexts. Isabel is past president (2021-2023) of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL). She is a UK Certified Expert Witness, a member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, and was a certified ACFE fraud examiner for over 20 years. Isabel also runs the Forensic Linguistic short course (FLsc) at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany, and is a director of the International Summer School in Forensic Linguistic Analysis (ISSFLA).
Angeli P. Albaña-Garrido, LL.M (Board Member)
Atty. Angeli Garrido is the Presiding Judge of Branch 32, Metropolitan Trial Court – Quezon City, Supreme Court of the Philippines. She is a law professor at Bulacan State University and Tarlac State University and a review lecturer for Criminology Licensure Examinations. She was a former Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer at the Office of the Ombudsman and an Associate Solicitor from the Office of the Solicitor General. Her recent work is a co-authored publication titled: “Disambiguating Philippine Republic Acts: the case of RA 10913,” published in 2023 by the International Journal of Legal Discourse, De Gruyter Mouton, and was presented at the 16th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL) held in Manila.
Rudy B. Gahar, PhD (Board Member)
Dr. Rudy Gahar is a criminologist by profession, a retired and seasoned investigator of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and currently the Dean of Criminology at Polytechnic College of La Union (PCLU) in La Union, Philippines. He established the Philippine Investigation and Forensic Science Academy (PIFSA) in 2017 and serves as its Chairman and Training Director. He is also the Founding Chairman of the Investigators Society of the Philippines (ISP). His recent work is a co-authored publication titled “Investigative Interviewing in the Philippines,” which has been included in the International Handbook of Investigative Interviewing and Interrogation published by Routledge in August 2024.
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