What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

First off, we have had a couple of investments, particularly in our Thailand portfolio. At the start of the pandemic, it was hard to get funding, so we had to work on one of our funding plans in order to sort of get us past in the pandemic, by divesting our assets in Thailand. Our in-house legal department had a great impact in that work, though it was not entirely done internally, as we used a local Indonesian law firm as council, but solely for the purpose of filings and other issues with their local security exchange commission. But the transaction in the deal was completely done by our in-house legal team.

We also invested towards minority stake in a major toll road concession holder in Indonesia. We acquired, just last year, a significant stake in an elevated toll road in Indonesia, as well. And then for this year, we made a bid for another elevated toll road, which were working on, in addition to, also in Indonesia, lots of other projects right now. In all, a multiple activities from our team in Indonesia.

Locally, we have smaller deals. Apart from toll roads, we have the mobility business, something that we think can grow into a full independent business unit of its own. Also, we have been acquiring roadside assistance companies, operations or toll road operations companies, and others, but these are smaller scaling, as compared to the tool road business. Apart from that, we also do have financing agreements for two domestic projects: the Cebu bridge, the new one Cebu-Cordova, and also for CALAX, the Cavite-Laguna expressway.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most? Which have you found most useful in your legal team?

AI is a phenom, that is the fact right now. I don’t necessarily think that AI can replace lawyers per say, but in terms of like simplifying processes, I think that it can be very useful. I think it has a lot of potential. But again, more for improving processes, you know, cutting red tape or turnaround time, you know. But in terms of giving legal advice, I don’t think it’s still there yet, but it can be exploited and improved.

Additionally, we are in the process of implementing a software that will, hopefully, simplify some of the contract review process for our team. We are trying to limit it for now, two simple contracts, very simple contracts. The idea is you have a template that is in the system, with our commercial colleagues’ input, and with whatever they need there. And then everyone gets notified, as it is all done in the system. Even the approval process, electronic signatures, all done through that system. So, that’s something that would hopefully, help us in terms of condensing all of the time next, because, sometimes people have a tendency of blaming legal for delays. So, I hope this system can work. We’ll do a test case for simple contracts. And then hopefully, it develops and someday we can even adopt AI in the system and, hopefully, address or include more complex contracts.

If existent, can you talk about you or your company’s efforts on renewability, sustainability, or other environmentally friendly activities?

For our legal team, right now, it is hard to say, but as a company we do make environmental and sustainability efforts. If you look at Cebu-Cordova bridge, it passes through a mangrove, and we have had extensive discussions with the local government and NGOs, with respect to making sure that we don’t disrupt the the natural ecosystem there. So, that’s something we are working on. Inspired by that, we are adopting that same approach to our other projects. So, once CALAX is completed, that will be a great environmental achievement, as the expressway was made to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Additionally, we are thinking of adopting renewable energy within our infrastructures, which is something that we have already implemented in our offices, through the installation of solar panels.

We continue to work closely with local communities that are impacted by our projects, as we make sure that we have a consistent dialogue with them, to make sure that we have as minimal  minimal disruption as possible towards their livelihood.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?

Often lawyers are obstacles to what the commercial teams want to achieve. I took a whole different perspective on what it means to be an in-house counsel. You’re not just expected to interpret the law, give jurisprudence or just be a technical professional lawyer. We are expected to apply all these things in a more practical and strategic manner. So for me, as an in-house counsel, the value that we have to companies, is that we enable them to pursue these projects, despite of the roadblocks that regulations and laws impose. But, the point being an in-house counsel is to enable your company to pursue these projects, you’re not supposed to be a roadblock. That’s why one particular key skill in achieving this is knowing how to communicate with your business partners, which, ultimately, is the most fundamental trait.