(Eagle News)—Senator Nancy Binay has reiterated her call for the creation of an Arbitration Commission that will solve cases and disputes arising from, or connected with medical malpractice, insurance laws, maritime laws, intellectual property law and intra-corporate matters.
Binay, who filed in 2017 Senate Bill 2033 seeking for this, made the push anew in a recent statement as she noted this would allow for the decongestion of court dockets.
Binay cited former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, who said that about 80 percent of the cases are criminal in nature, of which about 50 percent are drugs-related.
The remaining 20 percent, Panganiban said, were “noncriminal cases” that “can be mediated, compromised and ended sans laborious written judgments.”
“It is appropriate and timely to introduce mandatory arbitration to disputes involving medical malpractice, insurance laws, maritime laws, intellectual property law and intra-corporate matters, or collectively known as the ‘areas of dispute,'” Binay said.
Under SB 2033, the commission will be chaired by the University of the Philippines College of law dean, with seven members to be appointed by the President.
The ex-officio members of the commission are the secretaries of the Department of Health and the Department of Transportation; the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; the Insurance Commission chair; and the director general of the Intellectual Property Office, under the proposed law.
The Senate bill also mandates a sole arbitrator or three arbitrators, called the Arbitral Tribunal that are accredited by the Commission to settle a dispute.
“The mandatory arbitration before the Philippine Arbitration Commission would definitely alleviate the recurring problem of clogged dockets in our courts,” she said.
“Decongestion of cases will soon be realized as a number of cases could be taken out of the jurisdiction of the judiciary,” she added.
