Draft:J. EDUARDO MALAYA

J. EDUARDO MALAYA

J. Eduardo Malaya is a Filipino diplomat and lawyer serving as Ambassador of the Philippines to The Netherlands. He was elected in December 2022 as acting President of the Administrative Council of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) for term 2023-2024. In December 2023, he and three other Filipino lawyers were appointed as Members of the Court of the PCA from the Philippines.

Malaya was born on 25 March 1962 in Iriga, Camarines Sur, the Philippines, and attended the University of the Philippines where he obtained an economics and then juris doctor degree.

A career foreign service officer, he earlier served as Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia from 2011 to March 2017, Assistant Secretary (Director General) for Treaties and Legal Affairs/Legal Adviser from April 2017 to July 2019, and then Undersecretary (deputy minister) of the Department of Foreign Affairs from August 2019 to March 2021. He was also Foreign Affairs Spokesman from 2009 to 2011.

Malaya has authored or edited a number of books and journal articles on treaty law, international law and history, notably “Philippine Treaties in Force 2020” ; “Enhancing International Legal Cooperation: Extradition, Mutual Legal Assistance and Transfer of Sentenced Persons (2019) ; “Stewards of the Nation: Aguinaldo to Duterte and their Inaugural Visions” (2018) ; “Forging Partnerships: Philippine Defense Cooperation in Constitutional and International Laws” (2017) ; and “Frontlines of Diplomacy: Conversations with Philippine Ambassadors” (2011).

He is Vice President of the Philippine Society of International Law (since 2017) and a Member of the Editorial Board of the Philippine Yearbook of International Law (since 2017). He was elected to the Executive Council of the Asian Society of International Law in August 2021 and re-elected for a second term in September 2023.

In December 2022 Malaya was elected as acting President of the PCA Administrative Council. The PCA Administrative Council created the position of acting President to act “in the absence of the President” who is nominally the Netherlands Foreign Minister, at the Council’s 201st Meeting on 16 December 2019. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the national organization of lawyers, issued a statement stating that the “appointment (as PCA Council President) is a recognition of (Malaya’s) exemplary record in diplomacy and government service.”

He has been conferred a number of awards, including the Gawad Mabini (Order of Mabini) in 2016 while as Ambassador to Malaysia for setting up alternative learning centers for Filipinos and other migrant children in Sabah, together with two other officials, as well as a Commendation from the Congress of the Philippines (House Resolution No. 34 dated 25 January 2017) for his “pro-active work, community outreach and leadership” as Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia,  including for the long-sought renovation of the Embassy chancery building.

Malaya is married to Rena Cristina Koa-Malaya, MD. They have three children.