4 Filipinos appointed as members of Permanent Court of Arbitration

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 5) — Four Filipino international law experts have been appointed to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), an intergovernmental organization based in The Hague, Netherlands, which resolves disputes among member states, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced. 

They are Raul Pangalangan, Sedfrey Candelaria, Antonio Gabriel M. La Viña, and J. Eduardo Malaya. Their names were submitted to the organization by DFA Secretary Enrique Manalo.

Pangalangan is a law professor at the University of the Philippines and was a judge of the International Criminal Court from 2015 to 2021.

Candelaria is a law professor at the Ateneo De Manila University and head of the Research, Publications and Linkages Office of the Philippine Judicial Academy.

La Viña, a climate justice advocate, is associate director for Climate Policy and International Relations of the Manila Observatory. From 2016 to 2022, he was a member of the PCA Specialized Panel of Arbitrators and Experts.

Malaya, the Philippines’ ambassador to the Netherlands, is the acting president of the Administrative Council of the PCA for 2023 to 2024.

They were appointed on Dec. 22, 2023.

Member states of the PCA, determined by the 1899 and 1907 Hague Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, may appoint four experts in international law to serve as arbitrators under the PCA for a six-year renewable term.

These four Filipinos now comprise the country’s national group in the PCA, granting them the privilege to nominate candidates for the International Court of Justice and propose Nobel Peace Prize candidates, the DFA said.

Before this batch, the four Filipino members of the PCA were former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, former Justice Jose Vitug, and Pangalangan, whose appointment was renewed.

The DFA said that in June 2024, the PCA will convene a Congress of the Members of the Court in observance of the organization’s 125th anniversary to chart its future for the third time in its history.

The first was in 1899 for the Hague Peace Conference, and the second was in 1999 for the second centennial of the PCA.