PHILIPPINES Law and Practice Contributed by: Leland R Villadolid J, Gilberto D Gallos, Antonio Jose Gerardo T Paz and Leo Frederick Z Cruz, Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz (ACCRALAW)
• criminal liability; and • cases that cannot be compromised by law. 13.3 Circumstances to Challenge an Arbitral Award Philippine courts may set aside or refuse to recognise and enforce an award rendered in an ICA if: • a party to the agreement was under some incapac- ity; • the arbitration agreement is not valid under the law to which the parties have subjected it or, failing any indication thereof, under Philippine law; • the party making the application to set aside or resist enforcement was not given proper notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the arbitral proceedings, or was otherwise unable to present their case; • the award deals with a dispute outside the terms of the submission to arbitration, or contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the submission to arbitration; • the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the arbi- tral procedure was not in accordance with the par- ties’ agreements or, failing such agreement, under Philippine law; • the subject matter of the dispute cannot be settled by arbitration under Philippine law; or • the recognition or enforcement of the award would be contrary to public policy. An award in an ICA seated in a state that is not a party to the New York Convention may be recognised and enforced by Philippine courts when such state extends comity and reciprocity to such awards made in the Philippines. Otherwise, Philippine courts will treat such award as a final judgment or order of a tribunal of a foreign country under Rule 39, Section 48 of the Rules of Court, and it may be repelled by evidence of lack of jurisdiction, lack of notice to the party, collusion, fraud, or clear mistake of law or fact. Domestic arbitral awards may be vacated on the fol- lowing grounds: • the arbitral award was procured through corrup- tion, fraud or other undue means;
• the tribunal or any of its members exhibited evi- dently partial or corrupt behaviour; • the misconduct or misbehaviour of the arbitral tribunal materially prejudiced the rights of a party; • one or more arbitrators was disqualified from act- ing as such under the law and wilfully refrained from disclosing their disqualification; • the tribunal exceeded its powers or executed them in such a way that a complete, final and definite award on the subject matter was not possible; • the arbitration agreement is non-existent, invalid or unenforceable; • one of the parties is a minor or has been judicially declared incompetent; • there was a violation of public policy; or • any of the grounds specified under Rule 34 of the Model Law are fulfilled. 13.4 Procedure for Enforcing Domestic and Foreign Arbitration A domestic arbitral award may be enforced by filing a petition for confirmation of a domestic arbitral award at any time after the lapsing of 30 days from receipt of the arbitral award. A petition to confirm the arbitral award may also be filed, in opposition to a petition to vacate the arbitral award, at any time after the petition to vacate such arbitral award is filed. For international commercial arbitral awards, a peti- tion for the recognition and enforcement of an inter- national commercial arbitral award or foreign arbitral award is required to be filed. Such petition may be filed at any time after receipt of the award. The RTCs have jurisdiction to hear petitions for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, whether domestic or foreign. 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform Recently, the Supreme Court has taken steps to finalise and roll out the proposed amendments to the Rules of Court as part of its Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022–2027 (SPJI). The new rules promote the use of ADR and incorporate more elements of ADR into regular court proceedings, encouraging litigants
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