The Philippine Bar Association (PBA) has urged the government to be a party or to accede to 1970 Evidence Convention being administered worldwide by the Hague Conference of Private International Law (HCCH).

The PBA said that with the Philippines’ participation in the 1970 Evidence Convention, the taking of evidence overseas on civil or commercial matters would be facilitated and “thus lower litigant costs, help address court delays, and make the country’s law practitioners more competitive.”

The HCCH is an inter-governmental organization that administers several international conventions, protocols and soft law instruments.

The Philippines is a party to five HCCH instruments – the 1961 Apostille Convention, the 1965 Service Convention, the 1980 Child Abduction Convention, the 1993 Adoption Convention, and the 2007 Child Support Convention.

The PBA’s recommendation was aired during the concluding session of the three-day Asia Pacific Week of HCCH held last Oct. 18, 19 and 20 in Makati City. The Philippines’ Supreme Court was a co-host in the event.

The conference was attended by Dr. Christophe Bernasconi, HCCH secretary general, and about 230 government officials, judges, and lawyers in the Philippines and across the region.

Based on HCCH’s website, the 1970 Evidence Convention “establishes two methods of cooperation between States Parties for the taking of evidence abroad in civil or commercial matters.”

“The Convention provides effective means for the taking of evidence in cross-border circumstances, via (i) Letters of Request, and (ii) diplomatic or consular agents and Commissioners. By enabling a variety of mechanisms for the taking of evidence abroad, the Convention also provides an effective solution to overcoming differences between civil and common law systems in the taking of evidence,” it said.

The PBA, the country’s oldest voluntary national organization of practicing lawyers, was led by its President Rodelle B. Bolante during the event.

In a statement read by PBA 2nd Vice President Ernestine Carmen Jo Villareal-Fernando, the lawyers’ group noted “the complexities of litigation in the Philippines where party litigants and witnesses are already located abroad, affected by the diaspora of more than ten million overseas Filipinos and the greater mobility and interconnectivity resulting from globalization.”

“Consequently, the process of obtaining evidence across borders in international judicial proceedings has become cumbersome due to the differences between legal systems, including those based on the civil and common law traditions,” the PBA said.

“The Evidence Convention seeks to overcome these differences by establishing a uniform framework of cooperation mechanisms to facilitate and streamline the taking of evidence abroad through ‘Letters of Request,’” it said.

During the conference, HCCH Secretary-General Bernasconi also had a luncheon meeting with Integrated Bar of the Philippines President Attorney Burt M. Estrada, PBA President Bolante and Philippine Institute of Arbitrators (PIArb) Chair emeritus Teodoro Kalaw IV. Others present were Paul Maglalang and Prof. Andre Palacios, IBP; Joel Raymond Ayson and Peter Corvera, PBA: and Julius Anthony Omila and Ricardo Ongkiko, PIArb.

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