Regional Round-Up: Philippines Q4 2023 (Year in Review Edition)

Looking Back: 2023 and Gazing Into: 2024

Looking Back: 2023

The legal developments in 2023 mainly centre around the Government’s efforts to adopt mechanisms to improve existing laws/frameworks and impose standards in various fields of law.  To make transactions with the Government easier, the Government is gradually embracing the use of technology, either as an initiative or an improvement to an existing framework, in the areas of data privacyintellectual property, and digital banking. Similarly, for investments, government institutions are now mandated to establish mechanisms to facilitate doing business in the country. In the financial sector, the Government has proposed guidelines for the sustainable finance taxonomy and in the assessment of returns of unit investment trust funds to help takeholders make informed decisions. Finally, a decision of the Highest Court sets out the public policy exception in confirming or denying arbitral awards regardless of the timeliness of  their filing.

Gazing Into: 2024

Legal developments across the country have flourished in 2023 as seen in government agencies tightening their guidelines in enforcing laws in the labour sector and the finance sector. New developments are taking place in the area of corporate sustainability, with a new set of guidelines ready to be implemented in 2024. Developments are also sought to be introduced in the agriculture sector as bills make their way to the legislative arm of the Government. Finally, the Judiciary revisits the decisions by the Highest Court to define a legal framework conducive to the development of a free, vibrant, and competitive market. This is a significant effort in the fairly new legislation in the area of competition law

Full Report

Click on the link below for the full report which provides summaries of the key legal developments related to the above areas.

Please note that whilst the information in this Update is correct to the best of our knowledge and belief at the time of writing, it is only intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter and should not be treated as a substitute for specific professional advice

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