Gruba Caganda Advincula Melo & de la Fuente

Partner.

Court Litigation, Dispute Resolution, Special Projects.

Atty. Melo graduated with honors from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law Juris Doctor program and was admitted to the Bar in 1998. As a law student, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Ateneo Law Journal and a Facilitator/Intern of the Ateneo Human Rights Center. Prior to entering law school he finished his Bachelor of Commerce degree major in Legal Management also at the Ateneo.

Atty. Melo specializes in court litigation, dispute resolution, and special projects. In the area of litigation, he has handled acquisition and significant court litigation involving a large government and asset privatization project, infrastructure projects, public interest cases, large-scale fraud cases, and intellectual property enforcement matters.

Atty. Melo represented a major airline company (i) in a petition for nullification of a certification issued by the Department of Energy effectively subjecting its importations of aviation fuel to excise taxes; (ii) in securing a favourable decision by the Supreme Court in a claim for refund of excise taxes on imported aviation fuel passed on to it by a petroleum company; and (iii) in various claims for refund of excise taxes valued at approximately USD 100 million on importation of aviation fuel.

Atty. Melo likewise represented a domestic mining company in an arbitration dispute involving USD 9.3 million enjoining the company from rescinding the relevant agreement despite the beach committed by the other party. He also secured a favourable decision for a consortium of domestic bank in a legal matter involving the sum of USD 295 million before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre following by proceedings before the Singapore High Court and Singapore Court of Appeals. He represented publicly-listed Universal bank in an interpleader action concerning funds deposited by the bank in a financial institution in Singapore in the sum of approximately USD 22 million.

Atty. Melo was Legal Staff Head of the Independent Commission to Address Media and Activists Killings from 2006 to 2007. He was Legal Consultant to the Commission on Elections under the Office of the Chairman from 2008 until 2010. On 2018, he was named as one of the Mostly Highly Regarded Asia-Pacific Partner by Who's Who Legal Publication.

At present, Atty. Melo is a Lecturer on Mergers and Acquisitions, Special Proceedings, Provisional Remedies, Modes of Discovery and Special Civil Actions at the Ateneo De Manila University School of Law. He is also serves as a general counsel of Philippine Bank of Communications.

English, Filipino.

Ateneo de Manila School of Law - Juris Doctor Ateneo de Manila University - BS Legal Management.