Last 27 January 2015, IMOA nominated Justice Antonio T. Carpio for the UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award for Nationalism and International Law. On 20 June 2015, UPAA will officially confer the award on Justice Carpio.
Following is the full text of the nomination letter that I drafted for IMOA:
The Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs (IMOA) has the distinct honor to nominate Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio of the Supreme Court of the Philippines for the UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award for Nationalism and International Law.
Truth be told, Justice Carpio has long deserved this award. As Chief Presidential Legal Counsel of President Fidel V. Ramos, he was the leading architect of the level-playing-field policy that saw the rise of competition in industries beset by decades-old monopolistic practices. To this day, the programs and policies that he helped establish continue to have impact, and the most telling illustration of this is in the telecommunications industry. It was for this and his “distinguished and exemplary service” to the Republic of the Philippines that President Fidel V. Ramos awarded him the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1998.
