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Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Biz group to put up unit for mediating disputes
By Cherry T. Lim
THE Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and the Cebu Mediation Foundation Inc. (CMFI) yesterday launched a project that will de-clog the justice system of cases by institutionalizing mediation in the settling of business disputes.
Bonifacio Belen, president and chief executive officer of the CMFI, said the CCCI-CMFI Mediation Project aims to give parties in conflict a win-win solution through the out-of-court procedure of mediation.
But first, a mediation unit will have to be set up within the CCCI.
The CCCI Business Conflicts Mediation System will be developed. Training and accreditation of 30 professional mediators among CCCI members will also be conducted to serve the group’s needs.
“It will take about six months to a year before this will be in place because there will still be a training program, and we want to make sure the mediators are really qualified to mediate,” said CCCI president Carlos Co during the launch of the project at Laguna Garden Cafe.
“Also we want people to be aware that there is such mediation going on,” he added.
Belen said CMFI, a nonprofit, nonstock corporation, aims to make mediation and other modes of alternative dispute resolution the “immediate response to conflicts among persons and corporations,” as opposed to going to court.
Conflicts
Mediation will be used to settle business conflicts, environmental or other public and social issues, and conflicts in the workplace and even in the university campus.
Belen distinguished mediation from arbitration, saying the parties involved would have control over the outcome as well as the freedom to come up with creative but practical solutions. In arbitration, a third party makes the decisions.
Mediation also means savings in time and money, “confidentiality, preservation of business and social relationships, (and) binding agreements,” he said.
“The Supreme Court recognizes arbitration clauses in contracts,” according to Ma. Chonita Cejas of the CCCI.
What’s more, if mediation doesn’t work, litigation remains an option.
Mediation came to Cebu through Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., who wanted to institutionalize mediation in the judiciary to unclog the court dockets.
Court cases
In late 2000, the Philippine Judicial Academy, the training arm of the Supreme Court, asked the University of Southern Philippines’ (USP) Institute for Peace and Values-Centered Leadership (IPVCL) for help in selecting and training Cebu mediators for court-referred cases. Some 57 Cebu mediators were accredited in 2001.
CMFI is now using that experience to come up with mediation in non-court or out-of-court settings.
CMFI’s board of trustees includes USP president Ronald Duterte, chairman; IPVCL executive director Bonifacio Belen, president and CEO; University of San Carlos president Fr. Roderick Salazar Jr., SVD, vice president; USP vice president for planning and research Lourdes Jereza, corporate secretary; accountant and lawyer Ulysses Antonio Yap, treasurer; and Cebu Holdings Inc. customer affairs group manager Ver de la Cerna, public relations officer.
Trustees
The other trustees are CCCI president Carlos Co, Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce president Filomeno Lim, Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu Province president Manuel Monzon, Mitsubishi Motors president Sabino Dapat, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. president Roberto Aboitiz, Honorary Consul of Sweden Jose Sala, Philippine Mediation Foundation Inc. president Eduardo de los Angeles, Conflict Resolution Group Foundation Inc. president Annabelle Abaya and USP vice president for administration Oscar Jereza Jr.
The Asia Foundation, through the support of the United States Agency for International Development, made possible the grant that will fund the P1.2-million mediation project.
(January 20, 2004 issue)
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