Arbitral institutes gather to promote arbitration in PH

THE Philippine Institute of Arbitrators (PIArb) hosted the 2013 Regional Arbitral Institutes Forum (RAIF) conference last Friday and Saturday in Cebu City.

The PIArb has chosen Cebu City, the Philippine’s oldest city and one of the country’s richest in terms of cultural and religious history, as the venue of the conference.

The conference discussed topics about arbitration.

Lawyer Donemark Calimon, senior vice-president for Program of PIArb and chairman of the organizing committee, said “We conduct activities to promote arbitration in the Philippines. Arbitration is a mode of dispute resolution, if you want to avoid litigation in the court you go to arbitration, that’s why this is called alternative dispute resolution.”

He said Philippines is lagging behind Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia in terms of arbitration resolution, as the country is having a hard time catching up with the many arbitrations filed.

Calimon said there are many cases pending in courts and some of these cases take a long time before being resolved. Another thing is the lack of judges, that is why arbitration would really help, he added.

The PIArb is RAIF’s 7th member institute.

The RAIF was established in 2007 — by the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia, the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators, the BANI Arbitration Centre and the Arbitration of Brunei Darussalam — to allow its members to collaborate on common objectives, including serving the educational and social needs of the members of the arbitral institutes, facilitating the exchange of information on arbitration and promoting understanding and cooperation between their respective institutes. /CORRESPONDENT NORMAN V. MENDOZA