ILOILO CITY — The Philippine Arbitration Center in the Visayas (PACV), the first outside Metro Manila, opened here on Saturday.
The center is also the first school-based arbitration center in the whole Southeast Asia, said Lawyer Joenar Pueblo, PACV’s President, in a media interview.
Located inside the University of San Agustin, the PAVC was established in cooperation with the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. and the University of San Agustin College of Law.
Pueblo said that one of the main functions of the center is “encouraging commercial arbitration of cases” rather than going to court, which usually takes a long time.
He added the arbitration center “speeds up the solution of disputes of commercial cases” and “de-clogs the cases in the court”.
“We have an arbitration center of international caliber here and it is good because it is inside a university,” he said.
Cases in arbitration only takes one year to be resolved, faster compared to ordinary cases that would take five to ten years, Pueblo said.
Pueblo said that arbitration is a requirement in resolving conflicts in line with biddings and awards.
Also, the PACV is a factor that would help attract British investors, he said.
Pueblo was referring to the two-day trade mission of the members of the British Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (BCCP) last March 8-9 in this city.
“The arbitration started in Great Britain. When they see that there is arbitration center here in Iloilo, I think it would attract them more because they would think they are advanced because they are doing arbitration,” he said.
Although the center is located in this city, Pueblo said it would serve clients from all over Visayas.
The center would provide venue, procedure and technical assistance to parties willing to arbitrate, he said.
He added that the PACV is partnered with existing arbitration centers from the different parts of the world. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
