Full coverage: The South China Sea Issue

Philippine media report that the government spent 30 million US dollars on the South China Sea arbitration case over the past three and half years. Neither the Philippines nor the tribunal have given details of that spending. But we can get some idea from published charges and past tribunal fees.

In January 2013, the government of the Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitration in its disputes with China in the South China Sea. According to the procedure, the Philippines and China should each appoint an arbitrator. But the tribunal can not be established as China did not accept nor participate in the case. All five arbitrators were appointed by Shunji Yanai who was the president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea then.

Experts who are familiar with such operations say this kind of temporary group is an opportunity for judges and arbitrators to earn some extra money and has no relationship with the United Nations and international judicial institutions which pay salaries.

As a temporary group, the arbitral tribunal has no unified working location, secretaries, emails or official letterhead. Thus it has had to pay a significant amount in service charges to the Permanent Court of Arbitration since July 2013 to provide the necessary services. They include the search and nomination of experts, circulation of news and press releases, the organization of hearings in The Hague and payment to arbitrators and other staff. This made the temporary arbitral tribunal appear to be a part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration does provide services through standard charges which are published on its official website. Various charges are available for different positions. For instance, it costs two thousand euros for one-off non-refundable registration fee. It costs 250 euros per hour for a chief secretary, 175 euros per hour for a judicial officer and 125 euros per hour for a legal assistant. Ordinary secretaries cost 50 euros per hour. A tribunal hearing room costs one thousand euros per day. And one thousand 750 euros are paid per day for a whole office suite.