PHILIPPINES Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo Ma P G Ongkiko, John Christian Joy A Regalado and Ma Patricia B Paz-Jacoba, SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan
5.5 Breach of Arbitration Agreement When a party to an arbitration agreement commences court proceedings in breach of an arbitration agree - ment, Philippine courts must refuse to exercise juris - diction and instead refer the matter to arbitration, pro - vided that at least one party so requests no later than the pre-trial conference. After the pre-trial conference, the court will only act upon the request for referral if it is made with the agreement of all parties to the case. 5.6 Jurisdiction Over Third Parties Philippine laws generally do not allow an arbitral tribu - nal to assume jurisdiction over individuals or entities that are neither party to an arbitration agreement nor signatories to the contract containing the arbitration agreement, for as long as such individuals or entities refuse to submit their dispute to arbitration. If a request for an interim relief was made after the constitution of the arbitral tribunal then the tribunal may award preliminary or interim relief, which it may consider necessary to the subject matter of the dis - pute, unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties to an arbitration agreement. Such relief is binding in nature and may be granted to: • prevent irreparable loss or injury; • provide security for the performance of any obliga - tion; • produce or preserve any evidence; or • compel any other appropriate act or omission. Such interim relief and interim measures of protection include: • preliminary injunction directed against a party; • appointment of receivers; and 6. Preliminary and Interim Relief 6.1 Types of Relief • detention, preservation or inspection of property that is the subject of the dispute in arbitration. To the extent that the arbitral tribunal has no power to act or is unable to act effectively on the request for interim relief, the request may be made with Philip - pine courts even after the constitution of the arbitral
• within 30 days from notice of the arbitral tribunal’s preliminary determination of its jurisdiction; or • at the enforcement stage, when the party against whom an award is issued contests the award on the ground of the arbitral tribunal’s lack of jurisdic - tion. 5.4 Standard of Judicial Review for Jurisdiction/Admissibility Philippine courts must follow a deferential standard of judicial review for questions of admissibility and jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has ruled that courts must uphold factual findings of arbitral tribunals and should not permit the parties to relitigate issues of facts that have been previously presented and argued before the arbi - tral tribunal. As an exception, Philippine courts will allow relitiga - tion of factual issues on a de novo basis in domestic arbitration when: • there is an allegation of a violation of the Philippine Constitution or positive law; or • the integrity of the arbitral tribunal is challenged. A challenge to the integrity of the arbitral tribunal includes allegations that: • the award was procured by corruption, fraud or other undue means; • any one of the arbitrators was evidently partial or corrupt; • the arbitrators were guilty of misconduct; • one or more of the arbitrators were disqualified to act and wilfully refrained from disclosing such disqualifications; • one or more of the arbitrators wilfully refrained from disclosing any other misbehaviour by which the rights of any party have been materially prejudiced; or • the arbitrators exceeded their powers or so imper - fectly executed them that a mutual, final and definite award upon the subject matter submitted to them was not made.
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