Philippines

Jonathan P Serrano, Roberto T Santiago, Jr., and Crisela L Bernardino, PunoLaw

Elmer B Serrano, Serrano Law

Elmer B Serrano of Martinez Vergara Gonzalez & Serrano shares his expertise and explains why the Philippines’ value proposition remains sound

Lawyers and their companies need to challenge the status quo, says Elmer B Serrano, founder and senior partner of Martinez Vergara Gonzalez & Serrano

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the official organisation of all Philippine lawyers, has recently launched the Philippine International Centre for Conflict Resolution (PICCR). The PICCR is a non-stock, non-profit arbitral institution that will provide commercial arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services and facilities for parties to disputes. The PICCR was established in the IBP's objective of making arbitration more accessible and a mainstream option for dispute resolution in the Philippines.

Market players will have to keep abreast of changes as the country ushers in a flurry of corporate legal updates. Francisco Lim, senior partner of ACCRA Law, reviews the developments.

Public apostilled documents executed outside the Philippines no longer need to be authenticated by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in order for those documents to be considered authentic in the Philippines. This is because on May 14 2019, the Philippines became a party to the 1961 Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, or the Apostille Convention.

The Philippines has enacted Republic Act No 11232, or 'An Act Providing for the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines' (RA No 11232). It repealed the country's almost-four-decade-old Corporation Code (Batas Pambansa Bilang 68). According to proponents of RA No 11232, it is intended to improve the ease of doing business in the Philippines.

Aris Gulapa, Oliver Baclay, Jr. and Marie Yasmin Sanchez, Gulapa Law and Gulapa & Baclay