Philippines Legal & Tax Updates During the COVID-19 Crisis

With COVID-19 vaccination campaigns nearing completion or still in progress in various countries across Southeast Asia, our experts take this opportunity to look at some of the top questions and concerns on the minds of employers and employees when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination considerations. For example, can an employer require its employees to be vaccinated? Can...

The opening year of this decade was sadly and tumultuously marked by the many public health challenges, travel restrictions, border closures, fears and economic hardship brought on by the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.  Glimmers of hope re-emerged towards the end of 2020 as unprecedented worldwide efforts to research, experiment, formulate and test vaccine candidates...

On 16 February 2021, President Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11523, otherwise known as the “Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) Act” (the “FIST Law”), which aims to reduce the non-performing loans (“NPL”) of banks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the FIST Law, certain incentives and privileges will allow banks and financial institutions...

Hot on the heels of our other two series which dealt with aviation and restructuring & insolvency, DFDL is proud to unveil the next Q&A series, this time on Real Estate and Banking & Finance issues throughout Southeast and South Asia. This second edition will focus on the Philippines. This Q&A edition takes into account...

On 12 September 2020, the Department of Trade and Industry (“DTI”) and the Department of Labor and Employment (“DOLE”) issued Advisory No. 20-02, Series of 2020 (“Advisory No. 20-02”), which contained clarifications related to the DTI-DOLE Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2020-04-A. The latter was issued to provide supplemental guidelines on the prevention and control of...

The Anti-Red Tape Authority (“ARTA”) ARTA is a government agency created under Republic Act No. 11032 (“RA No. 11032”), otherwise known as the “Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018”. ARTA is tasked to implement policies, processes, and procedures in order to obtain the objectives of RA No. 11032, among...

This publication is part of our series focusing on Corporate Insolvency Regime in consideration of the COVID-19 outbreak in Southeast Asian countries. Given the present global situation, rehabilitation of businesses is a primary concern in order to help resuscitate ailing sectors of national economies. A clear and comprehensive understanding of insolvency laws across the region...

The Department of Labor and Employment (“DOLE”) issued Labor Advisory Nos. 17 and 18 dated 16 May 2020 containing guidelines on employment preservation upon the resumption of business operations as well as guidelines on the cost of COVID-19 prevention and control measures, respectively. Read the analysis of DFDL’s collaborating firm in the Philippines, Ocampo &...

The Department of Health (“DOH”) and the National Privacy Commission (“NPC”) issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2020-0002 providing for guidelines on the application of data protection and data privacy principles in the collection, processing, and disclosure of COVID- 19 data. This alert sets forth its salient features. Download the full alert now: Contact Atty. Karen...

The COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (“IATF“) provided guidelines on the conduct of activities in areas covered by the Enhaned Community Quarantine (“ECQ“) and those areas under General Community Quarantine (“GCQ“). This alert summarizes the guidelines. This alert also summarizes regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and Employment’s...