‘Are we bereft of dependable Pinoy lawyers?’ — Joker Arroyo

MANILA — Senator Joker Arroyo said that instead of questioning the huge delegation sent to the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, we should question why the government retained expensive foreign lawyers to defend the country’s position.

“Are we saying that we are bereft of dependable Filipino lawyers learned in the very specialized field of international law?,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“What we overlook is that the nation has retained expensive foreign lawyers to argue the Philippine position,” he said.

Arroyo said that the number of delegates should not be the concern as the country “cannot scrimp when the stakes are high.”

But Arroyo said the appearance of foreign lawyers “did not look good at all.”

“Seated in the front row during the initial hearing were Solicitor General Florin Hilbay and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario alongside four foreign lawyers,” he said.

“It is as if we have no qualified international law barristers to articulate our position,” he added.

In a separate statement, Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, however, defended the hiring of foreign lawyers.

“These are lawyers who have an international reputation appearing before the tribunal,” he said.

“We can rely on them. They’ve been with us from the start since we filed the case (in 2013),” he added.

Foreign Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, also Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, also told reporters that “this is a very important case so we hired experts on international law with rich experience and proven track record.”