04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly (unsigned) AMBASSADOR SAYED ELMASRY Adviser to Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General and Special Envoy for Peace Process in Southern Philippines IN THE PRESENCE OF: (unsigned) (unsigned) DR. ALBERTO G. ROMULO DATO' DR. RAIS BIN YATIM SERI UTAMA Minister of Foreign Affairs Secretary of Foreign Affairs Malaysia Republic of the Philippines Initialed by Sec. Rodolfo (initialed) Garcia Mohagher Iqbal (initialed) Sec. Hermogenes Esperon (initialed) Witnessed by: Datuk Othman Razak (initialed) bin Abd Dated 27 July 2008 Two points are evident from the above-quoted portion of the MOA-AD. First, the affixation of signatures to the MOA-AD was a distinct procedure from the affixation of initials to the pages of the document. Initialization was accomplished on 27 July 2008, while signature was to have been performed on 5 August 2008. The initialing was witnessed by only one person, Razak, while the signing of the MOA-AD was to have been witnessed by the respective heads of the Foreign Affairs departments of the Philippines and Malaysia. Clearly, signing and initialing was not intended to be one and the same. Second, it is unequivocal from the document that the MOA-AD was to take effect upon the affixation of signatures on 5 August 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and not through the preliminary initialing of the document on 27 July 2008. Under our domestic law, consent of the parties is an indispensable element to any valid contract or agreement.[17] The three stages of a contract include its negotiation or preparation, its birth or perfection, and its fulfillment or consummation. The perfection of the contract takes place only upon the concurrence of its three essential requisites - consent of the contracting parties, object certain which is the subject matter of the contract, and cause of the obligation which is established.[18] Until a contract is perfected, there can be no binding commitments arising from it, and at any time prior to the perfection of the contract, either negotiating party may stop the negotiation.[19] Consent is indubitably manifested through the signature of the parties. That the elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 144/203