DFA loses arbitration case over passport deal

THE Supreme Court (SC) has junked a petition filed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) seeking to annul and set aside two procedural orders both issued by the UNCITRAL Ad Hoc Arbitral Tribunal in arbitration proceedings between the department and the BCA International Corporation.

In a full-court decision penned by Associate Justice Diosdao Peralta, the SC’s Second Division held that under Article 33 of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules governing the parties, “the arbitral tribunal shall apply the law designated by the parties as applicable to the substance of the dispute.”