Ma. Patricia B. Paz-Jacoba

mpbpaz@syciplaw.com

Ma. Patricia B. Paz-Jacoba is a partner and a member of the firm's litigation and arbitration, tax, and intellectual property practice groups.

She has deep experience in dispute resolution for clients operating in the highly regulated sectors of consumer products, water, energy, mining, environmental protection, land use and telecommunications, including in domestic and international arbitrations both institutional and ad hoc, and in court procedures in aid of arbitration.

She also has expertise in complex commercial contract disputes, intra-corporate and shareholders' disputes, white collar crime investigations and prosecutions including for fraud and defamation, family law, healthcare litigation, intellectual property rights enforcement, and tax litigation.

Work Experience

Ms. Paz-Jacoba has represented clients in all levels of the Philippine judiciary including the Court of Tax Appeals (tax court) and the Sandiganbayan (graft court), in matters before international and domestic arbitral tribunals, as well as in proceedings before administrative agencies.

She is a significant contributor in many of the firm's high-value cases. Her portfolio of cases includes:

• defending the country's largest power distribution public utility company in anti-trust litigation before the energy sector regulator;
• representing a publicly listed project owner, engaged in power generation, distribution, and retail electricity services, in two related high-value arbitrations under the rules of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre;
• advising several foreign clients in a national public inquiry on the human rights implication of climate change;
• defending an international organization's immunity rights in criminal suits against its high-ranking officials;
• representing a sub-contractor in court proceedings for interim measures of protection, which successfully prevented calls on standby letters of credit, and in the related construction arbitration administered by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre;
• securing a favorable award for a luxury real estate developer after successfully impleading the guarantor in a construction arbitration initiated by the contractor before the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission;
• successfully obtaining a reversal from the appellate courts of a construction arbitral award on the import of the term "exclusive of Value Added Tax" in the contract price provision of the parties' USD110 million construction agreement;
• representing the subsidiary of a publicly listed Philippine conglomerate in a judicial claim for refund before the Court of Tax Appeals to recover a total of over one billion pesos in excise taxes that were wrongfully collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

She is an accredited arbitrator of the Philippine International Center for Conflict Resolution, and is a recognized ADR Practitioner in Arbitration by the Philippine Department of Justice - Office for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

She is also a member of the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators and the Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines, Inc.

Ms. Paz-Jacoba has been cited as a Next Generation Lawyer and Rising Star by Legal 500 Asia Pacific. She has also been selected for inclusion in The Legal 500's inaugural Arbitration Powerlist - South East Asia region, and is shortlisted as "Lawyer of the year (Litigation)" in The Legal 500 Southeast Asia 2023 Awards.

Admission to the Bar

2010, Philippines

Education

UP Diliman (B.A., cum laude, 2005; J.D., 2009)

Publications

Ms. Paz-Jacoba is the author or co-author of several publications including the Philippine Chapters for "The Legal 500: International Arbitration Comparative Guide" in 2022 and "CMS Guide on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments and Awards (Southeast Asia Edition)" in 2021; Philippine Chapters for the World Bank's flagship "Doing Business" publications from 2016 to 2020; "Enforcement of Foreign Judgment Guide" for the Multilaw Litigation Practice Group (LPG) in 2019; "Filing a Complaint in the Philippines" for the World Bank's "Benchmarking Public Procurement 2016 Project"; "Complaints mechanism concerns" for International Financial Law Review in 2015; and the Philippine Chapter for Juris Publishing, Inc.'s "International Product Liability" in 2011.

Professional Activities

Philippine Institute of Arbitrators
U.P. Women Lawyer's Circle
Integrated Bar of the Philippines - Quezon City