Joseph Manolo REBANO

Introduction

Joseph Rebano joined Del Rosario & Del Rosario in 1996 and currently leads the firm’s marine casualty practice and special projects team. He maintains a broad maritime-focused practice, representing vessel owners, charterers, managers, agents, transport intermediaries, port terminals, protection and indemnity clubs, and other marine insurers in both contentious and non-contentious matters.

His expertise spans a wide range of shipping issues, including charter party disputes, ship casualties, marine environmental and pollution claims, seafarer personal injury and death defence, ship arrest, ship finance and sale/purchase, and disputes involving the carriage of goods or passengers.

Rebano has handled numerous major marine casualties, most recently the Houthi missile attacks that led to the sinking of the Magic Seas and Eternity C in July 2025, and the True Confidence incident in March 2024. He also played key roles in landmark cases such as the NOL Schedar grounding in 2000 (which spurred major changes in Philippine maritime environmental law), the Solar 1 oil spill in 2006 (the country’s largest pollution incident), the Superferry 14 terrorist bombing in 2004, and the St Thomas Aquinas collision in 2013.

Beyond maritime law, Rebano advises on complex Filipino crew matters, including drug smuggling across jurisdictions and cruise personnel deportations in the US.

He also has extensive experience in commercial, corporate, regulatory and transactional matters involving maritime-related entities, including joint venture disputes, compliance issues and shareholder conflicts.

Rebano is actively involved in the OSM-Thome merger, the largest ship management merger to date.

He is recognised as a Hall of Fame lawyer for shipping by Legal 500 and a Distinguished Practitioner by AsiaLaw. In 2024, he was named Aviation and Shipping Lawyer of the Year at the 2024 AsiaLaw Regional Awards in Malaysia.

Chambers Asia (2012) describes him as “an outstanding lawyer, very diligent and very thorough”, particularly noted for his expertise in admiralty and related investigations.