User Agreement

Tala app graphic of app downloading

Tala App User Agreement

Effective Date: July 30, 2021


This User Agreement (the “Agreement”) is an end-user license agreement between you (“user,” “you,” “your”) and Tala Financing Philippines, Inc. (“Tala”, “us”, “we”), a corporation organized and registered under the laws of the Republic of the Philippines, with SEC Registration No. CS201710582, TIN 009-614-758, and Certificate of Authority (to operate as a financing company) No.: 1132 (“Tala”). The Agreement shall govern all your use of the Tala Android application, services, software, and support (collectively, the “Tala App” or “App”) that Tala offers.

In order to participate in a certain component of the Tala App, you may be required to agree to additional terms and conditions (“Additional Terms”). Where such Additional Terms are inconsistent with this Agreement, the Additional Terms shall control.

This User Agreement (together with the Privacy Notice, Privacy Policy and any applicable Additional Terms) sets forth the complete Terms and Conditions. You warrant that you would not use or access the Tala App if you had any claim or reservation against any matter in The Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree with any of the Terms and Conditions, then you may not use the Service. Violation of these Terms will lead to suspension, modification, or termination of your access and/or account.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Tala App and any contractual relations with you without notice. In case you have breached any of the Terms and Conditions, we may suspend, terminate or in any way modify your access to the Tala App and our contractual relations without notice. These are without prejudice to our rights and remedies under the Terms and Conditions, in law or in equity.

Section 1. DEFINITIONS

“Additional Terms” has the meaning set forth above.
“Agreement” means this User Agreement;
“Account” means your account on the Tala App;
“Business Day” means a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or national or public holiday in the Philippines;
“Credentials” means your personal credentials used to access the Tala App and operate your Account;
“Credit Advance” means a credit line and/or drawdown provided by Tala through the Tala App;
“Equipment” includes your mobile phone handset, SIM Card and/or other equipment which when used together enables you to access the Tala App;
“Force Majeure” means events, circumstances or causes beyond a party’s reasonable control and which make performance of the obligations inadvisable, commercially impracticable, illegal, or impossible, including but not limited to acts of God, war, strikes or labor disputes, embargoes or governmental orders;
“License Restrictions” means actions listed in Section 3 which constitute a breach of this Agreement;
“Mobile Network Operator” means a mobile network operator duly registered in the Philippines;
“Network” means a mobile cellular network operated by a Mobile Network Operator;
“Personal Information” means your phone number, name, date of birth, identification number or passport number and/or such other information deemed to be personal data and/or personal information pursuant to the Data Privacy Act of 2012 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations;
“Privacy Policy” means the Tala privacy policy that sets out the basis on which Tala collects and processes your Personal Information, accessible at https://tala.ph/privacy-policy-ph/;
“Relevant Information” means information including, but not limited to, data relating to your phone (including, without limitation, your phone’s history) from your Equipment, from any SMS sent to you by the Third Party Providers and any financial services providers relating to your use of Third Party Services and such other information as Tala shall require for purposes of providing the Services;
“Request” means a request or instruction received by Tala from you or purportedly from you through the Network and the System and upon which Tala is authorized to act;
“Services” shall include any form of services or products that Tala may offer you pursuant to this Agreement and as you may from time to time subscribe to, including, but not limited to, a “Credit Advance” and “Service” shall be construed accordingly;
“Service Fee” means a technology service fee associated with any Service;
“SIM Card” means the subscriber identity module which when used with the appropriate mobile phone handset enables you to access the Network and to use the Third Party Account;
“SMS” means a short message service consisting of a text message transmitted from your mobile phone to another;
“System” means electronic communications software enabling you to communicate with Tala for purposes of the Services. The System and the Services will for the purpose of this Agreement be accessed through a Mobile Network Operator’s system;
“Technology” means services used or supported by the Tala App;
“Terms and Conditions” has the meaning set forth above.
“Third Party Account” means your mobile money store of value, being the record maintained by Third Party Providers in the Philippines, in the amount of Philippine pesos (and/or electronic monetary value equivalent) from time to time held by you in the Third Party System;

“Third Party Providers” means providers which offer Third Party Services, including, but not limited to, a money transfer and payments service provider.
“Third Party Services” means services offered by third parties, including, but not limited to, money transfer and payments service.
“Third Party System” means the system operated by the Third Party Providers, including, but limited to, systems for the provision of money transfer and payments services.

In addition to the above definitions, unless the context requires otherwise, the singular shall include the plural and vice versa; a reference to any one gender, whether masculine, feminine or neuter, includes the other two; all the headings, subheadings and bullet points in this Agreement are for convenience only and are not to be taken into account for the purposes of interpreting it; the recitals and schedules shall be deemed to form part of this Agreement.

Section 2. ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

You must carefully read and understand this Agreement (together with the rest of the Terms and Conditions) as amended from time to time. You will be deemed to sign this Agreement and agree to the Terms and Conditions upon clicking the “Accept” option on the Tala App asking you to confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to abide by this Agreement. If you do not agree with this Agreement and the Terms and Conditions, please do not click the “Accept” option. Please note that you will not be able to access the Services and get license to the Tala App if you do not click “Accept”.
By downloading the Tala App and opening an Account, you agree to comply with and be bound by the Terms and Conditions governing the Services and you affirm that the Terms and Conditions herein are without prejudice to any other right that Tala may have with respect to the Services and/ or Account in law or otherwise.
The Terms and Conditions may be amended or varied from time to time and the continued use of the Services constitutes your agreement to be bound by the terms of any such amendment or variation. Tala will take all reasonable measures to notify you of any such changes.
By using the App or any of the Services, you consent to us collecting and using technical information about the Equipment and related software, hardware and peripherals for Services that are internet-based or wireless to improve Tala’s products and to provide any Services to you. If you use these Services, you consent to Tala’s and Tala’s affiliates’ and licensees’ transmission, collection, retention, maintenance, processing and use of your Personal Information and/or Relevant Data in connection with Tala’s credit scoring services and/or to improve Tala’s Services and/or your experience while using the Tala App.

Section 3. SCOPE OF LICENSE

In consideration of you agreeing to abide by the terms of this Agreement, Tala grants you a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use the App on your Equipment, subject to this Agreement. Tala reserves all other rights therein.
Except as expressly set out in this Agreement or as permitted by any local law, you agree:
● not to rent, lease, sub-license, loan, translate, merge, adapt, vary or modify the App;
● not to make alterations to, or modifications of, the whole or any part of the App, or permit the App or any part of it to be combined with, or become incorporated in any other programs;
● not to disassemble, decompile, reverse-engineer or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the App or attempt to do any such thing;
● not make available the App in whole or in part (including object and source code), in any form to any person without prior written consent from Tala; and
● to comply with all technology control or export laws and regulations that apply to the technology used or supported by the App or any Services.
License Restrictions:
● not use the App or any Services in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with the Terms and Conditions, or act fraudulently or maliciously, for example, by hacking into or inserting malicious code, including viruses, or harmful data, into the App, any Services or any operating system;
● not infringe Tala’s intellectual property rights or those of any third party in connection with your use of the App or any Services, including the submission of any material (to the extent that such use is not licensed by this Agreement);
● not transmit any material that is defamatory, offensive or otherwise objectionable in relation to your use of the App or any Services;
● not use the App or any Services in a way that could damage, disable, overburden, impair or compromise Tala’s systems or security or interfere with other users; and
● not collect or harvest any information or data from any Services or Tala’s Systems or attempt to decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running any Services.

Section 4. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

You acknowledge that all intellectual property rights in the App and the Technology anywhere in the world belong to Tala, that rights in the App are licensed (not sold) to you, and that you have no rights in, or to, the App or the Technology other than the right to use each of them in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. You acknowledge that you have no right to have access to the App in source-code form.

Section 5. USE OF THE SERVICES

The Services offered by Tala can only be utilized by persons over the age of 18 and possess the necessary legal capacity to enter into contracts under Philippine law. Tala reserves the right to verify the authenticity and status of your Account and the Relevant Information.

You understand that Tala may implement new Services, change existing Services, set conditions for access, suspend or permanently discontinue service or features without prior notice. You will be given notice and sufficient time as determined solely and reasonably by Us if there will be changes, temporary suspension, and or permanent discontinuance of a service, or feature. Should We exercise our rights under this section, We will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by You.

You agree and acknowledge that your use of the Tala App does not guarantee acceptance of your application for a Credit Advance or any other Service. Tala reserves the right to decline your application for any Service or to revoke the same at any stage at Tala’s sole and absolute discretion and without assigning any reason or giving any notice thereto.

Tala reserves the right (in Tala’s sole and absolute discretion) to issue, decline to provide or issue Services and/or vary the terms of any Service depending on Tala’s assessment of your credit profile, Relevant Information, and any such information that you may submit to Tala from time to time. The terms of the Service and the Service Fee payable in relation to each Service application will be displayed on the App.
The Tala App may refer you to Third Party Services either through links or some other method. For the avoidance of doubt, the Tala App shall not include such Third Party Services. You acknowledge and understand that Tala is not the provider of such Third Party Services. Should you use such Third Party Services, you shall be bound by their respective terms of use and privacy policies. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that you will not hold Tala responsible for, and will indemnify Tala from any liability arising from the Third Party Services.

Section 6. PERSONAL INFORMATION

You hereby agree and authorize Tala to use and verify your Personal Information and the Relevant Information (i) for the purposes set forth herein and (ii) to the extent Tala otherwise determines is necessary and/or advisable, in its sole discretion, to comply with applicable law.

Tala reserves the right to request further information from you pertaining to your application for a Credit Advance or any other Service at any time. Failure to provide such information within the time required by Tala may result in declining to accept your application for a Credit Advance or any other Service. Failure to provide the evidence of your identity may be deemed by Tala as a possible fraudulent attempt to access the App and/or the Services.

Section 7. REQUESTS MADE BY THE USER

You hereby irrevocably authorize Tala to act on all Requests received from you (or purportedly from you) through the System and to hold you liable in respect thereof. Tala may nevertheless refuse to carry out any Requests in Tala’s sole and absolute discretion.

Subject to Tala’s discretion, Tala reserves the right to reject any Request in relation to a Credit Advance and/or Service application from you and decline to act on or in accordance with the whole or any part of your Request.

Tala shall be entitled to accept and to act upon any Request, even if that Request is otherwise for any reason incomplete or ambiguous.

Tala shall be deemed to have acted properly and to have fully performed all the obligations owed to you notwithstanding that the Request may have been initiated, sent or otherwise communicated in error or fraudulently, and you shall be bound by any Requests on which Tala may act if Tala has in good faith acted in the belief that such instructions have been sent by you.

You agree to indemnify, and shall release, Tala and its directors, officers, employees, agents and representatives and those of its affiliates (collectively, the “Tala Indemnified Parties”), from and against all claims, losses, damages, costs and expenses howsoever arising in consequence of, or in any way related to Tala having acted (or failed to act) in accordance with the whole or any part of any of your Requests.

You acknowledge that, to the full extent permitted by law, Tala shall not be liable for any unauthorized drawing, transfer, remittance, disclosure, any activity or any incident on your account by the fact of the knowledge and/or use or manipulation of your Account PIN, password, ID or any means whether or not occasioned by your negligence.

In the event of any conflict between any terms of any Request received by Tala from you and this Agreement, this Agreement shall prevail.

Section 8. INTEREST AND FEES

Tala shall be entitled to set and charge Service Fees, in connection with your use of the Services, and from time to time amend or vary Tala’s Service Fees. If Tala decides to vary or amend Tala’s Service Fees, the Service Fees payable on any new application for Services will be displayed on the App.

Section 9. STATEMENTS

A statement and activity report in respect of your Credit Advance or any other Service will be made available on Request. Requests shall be made via a contact link on the App, via e-mail at support@tala.ph.

Section 10. TAXES

All payments to be made by you in connection with this Agreement are calculated without regard to any taxes payable by you. If any taxes are payable in connection with your payment, you must pay Tala an additional amount equal to the payment multiplied by the appropriate rate of tax. You must do so at the same time as making the payment.

You hereby consent and agree that Tala may withhold amounts in your Account if any tax authority requires Tala to do so, or Tala is otherwise required by law or pursuant to agreements with any tax authority to do so, or if Tala needs to comply with internal policies or with any applicable order or sanction of a tax authority.

Section 11. USER’S RESPONSIBILITIES

You shall at your own expense provide and maintain in safe and efficient operating order your Equipment necessary for the purpose of accessing the System and the Services.

You shall be responsible for ensuring the proper performance of your Equipment. Tala shall neither be responsible for any errors or failures caused by any malfunction of your Equipment nor shall Tala be responsible for any computer virus or related problems that may be associated with the use of the System, the Services, and the Equipment. You shall be responsible for charges due to any service provider providing you access to the System, the Services and/or the Equipment and Tala shall not be responsible for losses or delays caused by any such service provider.

You shall follow all instructions, procedures, and terms contained in this Agreement and any document provided by Tala concerning your use of the System and the Services.

You hereby agree and acknowledge that you shall be solely responsible for the safekeeping and proper use of your Equipment and for keeping your Credentials secret and secure. You shall ensure that your Credentials do not become known or come into possession of any unauthorized person. Tala shall not be liable for any disclosure of your Credentials to any third party and you hereby agree to indemnify and hold the Tala Indemnified Parties harmless from any losses resulting from any disclosure of your Credentials.

You shall take all reasonable precautions to detect any unauthorized use of the System and the Services. To that end, you shall ensure that all communications from Tala are examined and checked by you or on your behalf as soon as practicable after receipt by you in such a way that any unauthorized use of and access to the System will be detected. You shall immediately inform Tala in the event that:

● You have reason to believe that your Credentials are or may be known to any person not authorized to know the same and/or have been compromised; and/or
● You have reason to believe that unauthorized use of the Services has or may have occurred or could occur and a transaction may have been fraudulently input or compromised.

You shall at all times follow the security procedures recommended by Tala. You acknowledge that any failure on your part to follow the recommended security procedures may result in a breach of your Account’s confidentiality. In particular, you shall ensure that the Services are not used, Requests are not issued and/or relevant functions are not performed by anyone other than by you.

You shall not at any time operate or use the Services in any manner that may be prejudicial to Tala.

Section 12. DISCLAIMERS

Tala does not warrant or guarantee continuous, uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free access to or use of the Tala App. You may experience interruptions to the operation or functionality of the Tala App for many reasons including reasons outside of Tala’s control. Tala does not warrant or guarantee that any defects or bugs will be corrected.

THE TALA APP AND THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TALA EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT AS TO THE TALA APP, INFORMATION, SERVICES, CONTENT AND MATERIALS ON THE TALA APP. TALA DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE TALA APP, SERVICES, OR MATERIALS IN THE TALA APP ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT OR ERROR-FREE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION AS TO THE ACCURACY OR PROPRIETARY CHARACTER OF THE TALA APP, SERVICES OR ANY PORTION THEREOF. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS AND SOFTWARE CONTAINED IN THE TALA APP WILL BE AVAILABLE, TIMELY, SECURE, OR UNINTERRUPTED. TALA WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS UNLESS MATERIALLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO TALA’S SOLE GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT.

INFORMATION ON THE TALA APP MAY CONTAIN TECHNICAL INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS. TALA CANNOT AND DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE TALA APP OR ITS SERVER(S) ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. USE OF THE TALA APP IS SOLELY AT YOUR RISK.

Section 13. VARIATION AND TERMINATION

Tala may at any time, upon notice to you, terminate Tala’s business relationship with you and close your Account and in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing Tala may cancel any Services which Tala has granted and require the repayment of outstanding debts resulting from such Services within such time as Tala may determine. The adjustments will be communicated to you and will be displayed in the App.

Without prejudice to Tala’s other rights, Tala may at its sole discretion suspend or close your Account for any reason, including but not limited to if:

● you use the Account for unauthorized purposes or where Tala detects any abuse/misuse, breach of content, fraud or attempted fraud relating to your use of the Services;
● Tala is required or requested to comply with an order or instruction of or a recommendation from any competent authority;
● Tala reasonably suspects or believes that you are in breach of the Terms and Conditions (including non-payment of any a Credit Advance amount due from you where applicable) which you fail to remedy (if remediable) within 7 days after service of notice by email, SMS or other electronic means requiring you to do so;
● Tala must update or upgrade the Services from time to time;
● your Account becomes inactive or dormant;

Termination shall however not affect any accrued rights and liabilities of either party. If Tala receive notices of your death, Tala will not be obliged to allow any operation or withdrawal from your Account by any person.

In the event that your Account has a credit balance at any time as a result of overpayment of your Credit Advance, you may issue a Request to Tala for payment of such credit balance and Tala will return any such balance to you, less any applicable fees, provided that such amount falls above the minimum transfer amounts specified by the relevant Third Party Provider.

Section 14. ASSIGNMENT

You shall not assign or transfer any of your obligations under this Agreement, in whole or in part, without Tala’s prior written consent. You acknowledge and agree that Tala may at any time assign its rights or obligations (including any Credit Advance) to any third party without your consent but with reasonable notice to you in writing, by e-mail or by SMS to the mobile phone number or email address you provided to Tala in your request for the App, or by notification within or from the Tala App.

Section 15. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Tala shall not be responsible for any loss suffered by you should the Services be interfered with or be unavailable by reason of the failure of any of your Equipment, or any other circumstances whatsoever not within Tala’s control including, without limitation, Force Majeure or error, interruption, delay or non-availability of the System, terrorist or any enemy action equipment failure, loss of power, adverse weather or atmospheric conditions, and failure of any public or private telecommunications system.

You acknowledge that the App has not been developed to meet your individual requirements and that it is, therefore, your responsibility to ensure that the facilities and functions of the App, as described meet your requirements.

Tala only supplies the App for domestic and private use. You agree not to use the App for any commercial, business or resale purposes, and Tala has no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

Tala will not be liable for any losses or damage suffered by you as a result of or in connection with:

● any defect or fault in the App or any Services results from you having altered or modified the App;
● any defect or fault in the App results from you having used the App in breach of the Terms and Conditions;
● your breach of the License Restrictions;
● unavailability of sufficient funds in your Third Party Account;
● failure, malfunction, interruption or unavailability of the System, your Equipment, the Network or a Third Party System;
● the money in your Account being subject to legal process or other encumbrance restricting payments or transfers thereof;
● your failure to give proper or complete instructions for payments or transfers relating to your Account;
● any fraudulent or illegal use of the Services, the System and/or your Equipment; or
● your failure to comply with this Agreement and any document or information provided by Tala concerning the use of the System and the Services.

Tala shall not be liable to you for any interference with or unavailability of the Services, however caused. Under no circumstances shall Tala be liable to you for any loss of profit or anticipated savings or for any indirect or consequential loss or damage of whatever kind, however caused, arising out of or in connection with the Services even where Tala knew the possibility of such loss or damage.

All warranties and obligations implied by law are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Section 16. INDEMNITY

You undertake to indemnify the Tala Indemnified Parties and hold such parties harmless against any loss, charge, damage, expense, fee or claim which the Tala Indemnified Parties suffer and you absolve the Tala Indemnified Parties from all liability for loss or damage which you may sustain from Tala acting on your instructions or requests or in accordance with this Agreement. Such indemnity shall also cover the following:

1. All demands, claims, actions, losses and damages of whatever nature which may be brought against the Tala Indemnified Parties or which the Tala Indemnified Parties may suffer or incur arising from Tala acting or not acting on any Request or arising from the malfunction or failure or unavailability of any hardware, software, or equipment, the loss or destruction of any data, power failures, corruption of storage media, natural phenomena, riots, acts of vandalism, sabotage, terrorism, any other event beyond Tala’s control, interruption or distortion of communication links or arising from reliance on any person or any incorrect, illegible, incomplete or inaccurate information or data contained in any Request received by Tala.
2. Any loss or damage that may arise from your use, misuse, abuse or possession of any third-party software, including without limitation, any operating system, browser software or any other software packages or programs.
3. Any unauthorized access to your Account or any breach of security or any destruction or accessing of your data or any destruction or theft of or damage to any of your Equipment.
4. Any loss or damage occasioned by the failure by you to adhere to this Agreement and/or by supplying of incorrect information or loss or damage occasioned by the failure or unavailability of third party facilities or systems or the inability of a third party to process a transaction or any loss which may be incurred by the Tala Indemnified Parties as a consequence of any breach by this Agreement.
5. Any damages and costs in respect of any claims against the Tala Indemnified Parties for loss where the particular circumstance is within your control.

Section 17. COMMUNICATION

If you wish to contact Tala in writing, or if any condition in this Agreement requires you to give Tala notice, you can send this to Tala by e-mail to support@tala.ph or to such e-mail address that may be communicated to you from time to time. Tala will confirm receipt of this by contacting you by e-mail. If Tala has to contact you or give you notice in writing, Tala will do so by e-mail or by SMS to the mobile phone number or email address you provided to Tala in your request for the App, or by notification within or from the Tala App.

Section 18. GENERAL PROVISIONS

No failure by Tala to exercise, and no delay in exercising, any right or remedy in respect of any provision of this Agreement shall operate as a waiver of such right or remedy. If any provision or part of a provision of this Agreement shall be or be found by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, such invalidity or unenforceability shall not affect the other provisions or parts of such provisions of this Agreement, all of which shall remain in full force and effect. The Terms and Conditions (for the avoidance of doubt, including, but not limited to, this Agreement) constitute the entire agreement between you and Tala and supersede and extinguish all previous agreements, promises, assurances, warranties, representations and understandings, whether written or oral, relating to its subject matter. You acknowledge that in entering into this Agreement you do not rely on any statement, representation, assurance or warranty (whether made innocently or negligently) that is not set out in this Agreement, the Credit Advance pages or the Privacy Policy. You agree that neither you nor Tala shall have any claim for innocent or negligent misrepresentation or negligent misstatement based on any statement in this Agreement.

Section 19. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

The parties shall use their good faith efforts to resolve any dispute, controversy or claim of any nature whatsoever arising out of or in relation to or in connection with this Agreement. To this end, the parties in dispute shall each promptly appoint representatives of appropriate standing who shall meet and attempt to resolve any dispute between them. In the event that an amicable settlement has not been reached within thirty (30) days of the parties’ representatives meeting as aforesaid, the following provisions of this clause shall apply.

Any dispute, difference or question whatsoever and howsoever arising out of or in connection with this Agreement shall be referred for final determination to a single arbitrator to be appointed by agreement between the parties hereto, or in default of any such agreement within seven (7) days of the notification of any dispute by either party to the other, upon application by either party, by the Chairman for the time being of the Philippine Institute of Arbitrators. Such arbitration shall take place in Manila and shall be conducted in accordance with the Rules of Arbitration of the Institute. To the extent permissible by law, the determination of the arbitrator shall be final and binding upon the parties and shall not be subject to any appeal.

Nothing in this section shall restrict either party’s freedom to commence legal proceedings of any nature for the purposes of seeking preliminary injunctive relief or interim or conservatory measures from any court of competent jurisdiction pending the final decision or award of any arbitrator.
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the international arbitration laws and the laws of the Philippines.