Malacañang Defends Hiring of Foreign Lawyer to Represent PHL at Arbitral Tribunal

(PIA) — The Palace on Wednesday defended the hiring of a foreign counsel to represent the Philippines at the Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands, in the country’s territorial dispute with China.

“You hire someone on the basis of competence. You hire someone on the basis of expertise and the field of knowledge that one possesses,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, commenting on reports that lawyer Harry Roque has questioned the government move to enlist the help of a foreign lawyer to defend the Philippines’ case against China at the tribunal.

“We have the knowledge, but insofar as appearing before the international tribunal, you get the best persons that you can hire for that,” Lacierda told reporters during the daily press briefing in Malacañang.

“When you call on international arbitration, for instance, in other cases that the Philippine government has appeared before, we’ve always hired experts on those issues,” he added, noting that it would be foolhardy for the country not to hire experts who have experience in appearing before such courts.

On why the government sent a big delegation to The Hague, Lacierda said this shows that everyone in the government supports the case against China.

“This is a very important issue for the country and it shows the unity of the three branches of government in presenting this issue before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS),” he explained.

The government has hired Paul Reichler as the Philippines’ Chief Counsel at the ITLOS.

Reichler, who graduated cum laude from the Harvard Law School in 1973, is a partner at the 70-year-old law firm Foley Hoag in the United States. He co-chairs the firm’s International Litigation and Arbitration Department.

Chambers Global, which has been ranking the world’s best law firms and lawyers since 1990, has described Reichler as one who “belongs to a select group of elite lawyers with extensive experience litigating on behalf of sovereign states before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg”.

Reichler has expressed his eagerness to help poor countries, saying that smaller countries should at least have an equal footing before the international tribunals, despite their economic or military weakness, compared to big and powerful states. (PCOO/PND)