The following updates, among others, were covered by SyCipLaw’s bulletin to its clients:
A. The Department of Labor and Employment released Department Order No. 213-2020 dated May 5, 2020 (DO No. 213-2020) which prescribes guidelines in the prescription of actions and the suspension of reglementary periods to file pleadings, motions and other documents and the period up to when certain documents which are due within the period of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) can be filed.
B. The Department of Trade and Industry has issued Memorandum Circular No. 20-22 dated May 5, 2020 supplementing the Omnibus Guidelines of the IATF. The circular lists business establishments that are allowed to operate in areas under ECQ and GCQ. The circular provides for four categories of industries based on whether they can operate during ECQ and/or GCQ.
C. The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has issued Memorandum Circular No. 2020-012 dated May 4, 2020 allowing “[p]arties to pending mediation proceedings [to] file [an] online request to conduct the mediation through online meetings or conferences” starting May 4. The memorandum modifies Section 2 of its Memorandum Circular No. 2020-011, which provides that mediations before the IPOPHL are suspended until May 15, 2020.
D. The Supreme Court has issued OCA Circular No. 93-2020 dated May 4, 2020 prescribing the guidelines for the videoconference hearings of criminal cases involving persons deprived of liberty (PDL).
E. The Bureau of Customs has issued Customs Memorandum Circular (CMC) No. 125-2020 dated May 5, 2020 which provides guidelines that certain crude oil and refined petroleum products, “regardless of the country of origin, which are entered and withdrawn from warehouses in the Philippines for consumption,” are “subject to a temporary additional import duty of 10%, on top of their existing Most Favored Nation and preferential import duties.”
The bulletin was prepared by SyCipLaw partners Ronald Mark C. Lleno and Vida M. Panganiban-Alindogan, with the assistance of legal assistants Severino Miguel B. Sanchez and Kathleen Mae L. Nieto.
The full text of the bulletin can be below: