LA Café stays closed — city hall BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 08/19/2010

LA Café stays closed — city hall

BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 08/19/2010 There are several facets with which to appreciate or dis-appreciate the convoluted and controversial case involving the Philippine government and the Philippine International Air Transport Corp. (Piatco), wherein the former was recently reported to have emerged with the longer straw in an arbitration case with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Singapore. I choose to delve into the fact that it is nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory for the state, something which the Aquino government conveniently glosses over, because in effect it lost an atrocious amount of money while defending itself in the complicated proceedings before the arbitration body thereby dampening the supposed huge gains that had come its way. High-priced lawyers who were engaged to defend the Philippines were reportedly remunerated to the tune of a staggering P2 billion in taxpayers’ money even if they had never won even one single counterclaim lodged against Piatco. The 23 counterclaims, we were told, could have won for the government a total of $900 million had its legal battery succeeded.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100819com4.html

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