Publications

Since its passage on 26 August 1940, Commonwealth Act. No. 613, or the “Philippine Immigration Act of 1940,” has been the definitive guide on the issuance of Philippine visas, exclusion and deportation proceedings, the powers and structure of the Bureau of Immigration (“BI”), and other reportorial requirements that a foreign national must comply with in order to legally stay in the Philippines.

Over the past years, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (“BSP”) has undertaken various liberalization measures to ease foreign exchange regulations and facilitate foreign exchange transactions by banks, international and domestic corporations, Filipinos working and living abroad, and the public in general.

With consultations from over 2,000 law practitioners nationwide, the newly revised CPRA (A.M. No. 22-09-01-SC) aims “for a more ethical and faithful practice of the profession” which is designed to be “a modern, relevant and responsive guide for a lawyer’s conduct”.

Under the current framework of criminal cases in the Philippines, generally, a complaint must first be filed with the Office of the City Prosecutor if the penalty for the crime, as prescribed by law, is at least four years, two months, and one day, without regard to the fine.

To further strengthen the consumer protection framework, the financial regulators under Republic Act No. 11765 or the “Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act” (FPCA) took turns releasing the rules to effectively carry out the provisions of the law.

In August 2022, I wrote an article on probationary employment. The discussions centered mainly on the issues arising from the essential requirements under Article 296 of the Labor Code, i.e., that the employee must be apprised of the regularization standards at the time of his/her engagement, and that the probationary period must not exceed six months.

With fast-paced digitalization, electronic money (“e-money”) has rapidly become a regular part of the public’s daily transactions, particularly in the urban and urbanized areas. Since its introduction, e-money has much evolved, with various industry participants introducing differing consumer e-money products and platforms.

Last March 6, 2023, the House of Representatives passed a Resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention with a supermajority of 301 Representatives. Speaker of the House Martin Romualdez announced that those who supported the Resolution are “in a rush to amend the restrictive economic provisions” of the Constitution, referring to the limitations imposed on foreign direct investments.

The COVID-19 pandemic impelled local companies, such as those in the Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector, to transition from onsite work to work-from-home (WFH) arrangements.

On December 22, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in the case of Christian Louboutin vs. Amazon. Mr. Louboutin is a designer of luxury goods known for his trademark over the color red (Pantone 18-1663TP) applied to the sole of high-heeled shoes, which has been registered since 2005 under the Benelux Convention and in the European Union (EU) since May 10, 2016.