Mr. Ricardo Ma. P.G. Ongkiko, a partner and the Head of the Litigation Department of SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan (SyCipLaw), authored the Philippine Country Report of the book entitled “Force Majeure and Hardship in the Asia-Pacific Region” authored by Dr. Harald Sippel & Dr. Kabir Duggal. The global book launching is on January 24, 2022 and it will be hosted by the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), a non-profit organization formed to advance, strengthen and promote the conduct of international arbitration.
The keynote speaker for the book launch is Professor Lucy Reed, a member of the Arbitration Chambers. The book launching will also have the following notable arbitrators as speakers: Dr. Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Chiann Bao, Christopher Lau, Yoshimi Ohara, and authors Dr. Sippel and Dr. Duggal.
The book addresses the shifts in the economic balance between nations, corporations, and parties, and the rise in claims born from “force majeure” and “hardship” situations. “Force majeure” and “hardship” respectively describe situations where external, unforeseen, and unavoidable events make contract performance impossible, or where performance becomes significantly more burdensome. It also aims to fill in the information gap about force majeure and hardship by providing comprehensive and comparative country reports on 17 jurisdictions written by a distinguished roster of practitioners.
Mr. Ongkiko is an experienced litigator who has handled and tried a broad range of cases involving contract disputes, real property disputes, debt recovery, infrastructure and engineering disputes, intra-corporate controversies. He is an accredited arbitrator of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the Asian International Arbitration Centre, the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, among others. He is also an accredited arbitrator of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc., the Construction Industry Arbitration Commission, the Philippine International Center for Conflict Resolution, the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators, and the Intellectual Property Office, among others.
A copy of the book can be availed of through this link.