DivinaLaw Senior Partner Atty. Enrique V. Dela Cruz Jr. was a speaker at the Philippine Construction Arbitration Conference 2023 organized by the Philippine Institute of Construction Arbitrators and Mediators (PICAM) and held recently in Clark, Pampanga.
Atty. Dela Cruz shared his comments on the sessions on “How to Engage the Services of a Construction Legal Counsel” and “What to do After Winning a CIAC Construction Case” which featured Dr. Ernesto S. De Castro and Atty. Louie T. Ogsimer as speakers respectively.
Atty. Dela Cruz encouraged the audience to take advantage of gatherings such as those organized by PICAM in their search for a knowledgeable and skilled legal counsel who is active in handling construction disputes.
He also agreed with Atty. Ogsimer on the significance of the case Global Medical Center of Laguna vs Ross Systems International for lawyers in arbitration.
“This is significant because previously, an aggrieved party can bring both factual and legal issues to the Court of Appeals without a specific limitation to the nature of the factual issues that might be raised. In many cases, this has led to an extensive re-examination of the merits of an arbitral award issued by a tribunal in construction disputes. As explained by Louie a while ago, the Court’s ruling in this case delimits the factual issues that may be brought to the Court of Appeals and clarifies that appeals on pure questions of law should be brought directly to the Supreme Court.”
Atty. Dela Cruz is the head of DivinaLaw’s arbitration group. Under his leadership, the Firm recently won as Arbitration Law Firm of the Year in the 2022 Asian Legal Business (ALB) Philippine Law Awards. DivinaLaw is an accredited provider of Alternative Dispute Resolution services by the Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution (an attached agency of the Department of Justice in the Philippines).
