BOI revives arbitration, mediation mechanism

The Board of Investments (BOI) is reviving an arbitration and mediation mechanism for companies in dispute.

According to BOI managing head Vincent Perez, the BOI wants to revive the arbitration and mediation process for companies as a way of reducing their cost of business.

"Resorting to arbitration and mediation for companies in dispute would be much cheaper than going through an expensive court case," he said.

The BOI, Perez said, is willing to offer its services to arbitrate or moderate between two companies to settle their differences.

"The BOI is not imposing the mechanism, rather it wants the companies to voluntarily seek such a process and "invite" the BOI to mediate," Perez said, adding that "it is not necessarily the BOI which has to arbitrate or mediate."

A group of eminent personalities, he said, could also be asked to intercede.

The BOI, Perez said, merely wants to promote the process of arbitration and mediation as a way of solving business disputes.

The BOI, he continued, would also try to get the different industry associations to adopt arbitration and mediation as the first mode of settling disputes.

Once companies agree to undergo such a process, Perez said, they must abide by the decision of the arbitrator or mediator.

The arbitration or mediation process that the BOI is proposing, Perez said, would be limited to inter-company disputes and would not deal with labor problems.

Labor arbitration or mediation would continue to be under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Perez revealed that the arbitration or mediation process that the BOI is trying to revive is actually a dormant mechanism already provided for under Republic Act 876 otherwise known as the Arbitration Act.

In fact, he said, there is a Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. which is supposed to promote and encourage the use of arbitration, conciliation, mediation and other modes of alternative dispute resolution for the settlement of domestic and international disputes in the country.

Unfortunately, Perez discovered, the mechanism has not been adequately tapped.

"It’s a useful mechanism that is being used by other countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong," Perez said.