Rob is a Research Assistant at the Centre for International Law (CIL).

Before joining CIL, he worked for the Chief Justice of the Philippines where he rose to become senior court attorney only two years after his admission to the Philippine Bar (2012). During that time, he concurrently taught public international law and information and communications technology law at the Far Eastern University Institute of Law in the Philippines. He also interned at the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Kings County (USA, 2017) and for the International Co-Prosecutor of the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (Cambodia, 2011). 

Rob graduated from the Master of Laws program of the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, USA in 2017 as a Grotius Fellow (full-ride merit scholar). Prior to this, he obtained dual degrees in Master of Business Administration and Juris Doctor in 2010 from the De La Salle University (DLSU) – Far Eastern University (FEU) Consortium where he was presented with the Best Thesis Award. He was also conferred the Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree by DLSU – Manila in 2004. Aside from these degrees, he earned postgraduate certificates in International Arbitration at the International Arbitration Academy in Paris, France (2015) and in Public and Private International Law as an Emer de Vattel scholar and directed studies student at the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands (2014). He was also granted the Singapore Cooperation Programme Training Award on Public International Law by the Singapore Government–National University of Singapore CIL.

He remains active in moot court competitions either as a coach, judge, or administrator. He established the Michigan International Law Moot Court Association at the Michigan Law School and founded the international law moot court and debate team of FEU. He was also the coach of the Jessup Teams of both schools. While in law school, he was thrice ranked as Best Oralist at the Jessup Competition in the Philippines and was co-author of the 3rd best memorial of the 2010 Hardy C Dillard Memorial Competition Award of the Jessup Competition. Aside from engaging in moot court competitions, he was also part of the DLSU varsity swimming team.

Rob’s research interests include international dispute resolution, international investment law, business and human rights, comparative law and legal transplants, international human rights and humanitarian law, and international criminal law and gender crimes.”