PHILIPPINES Law and Practice Contributed by: Valeriano Del Rosario, Daphne Ruby Grasparil, Patrick Sarmiento and Maria Francesca Bautista, VeraLaw
VeraLaw 2nd Floor A&V Crystal Tower 105 Esteban Street Legaspi Village Makati City 1229 Philippines Tel: +63 2 8550 1888 Fax: +63 2 8550 2888 Email: veralaw@veralaw.com.ph Web: www.veralaw.com
1. Maritime and Shipping Legislation and Regulation 1.1 Domestic Laws Establishing the Authorities of the Maritime and Shipping Courts By way of background, the Philippines was a Spanish colony for almost 400 years and a US colony for about 50 years. By reason of the historical link to Spain and the USA, the Philippines follows the Spanish tradition of being a code-based jurisdiction, though all laws are written, and court proceedings are conducted in the English language. The New Civil Code and the Code of Commerce were both adopted from Spanish law. Most of the laws governing transportation and ship - ping are found in both Codes. The Philippines also follows the rule on judicial precedents, and only the decisions of the Supreme Court interpreting provi - sions of laws have the force of law. The jurisdiction of Philippine courts over maritime dis - putes is determined by law. The Judiciary Reorgani - sation Act of 1980 (BP 129), as amended by Repub - lic Act No 11576, provides that regional trial courts have exclusive original jurisdiction over admiralty and maritime matters for demands or claims that exceed PHP2 million, which is approximately USD34,000 at the exchange rate at the time of writing. The lower trial courts (metropolitan/municipal/municipal circuit trial courts) have exclusive original jurisdiction in admiralty and maritime actions where the demands or claims are below PHP2 million. It was only in 2020 that the Supreme Court promulgated Administrative Matter No 19-08-14-SC, otherwise known as the Rules of
Procedure for Admiralty Cases (the “Admiralty Rules”) with the aim of providing “fast, reliable and efficient means of recourse to Philippine courts” to parties in admiralty- and maritime-related matters. As of 2020, there are only ten designated Admiralty Courts with jurisdiction over maritime claims under the Admiralty Rules. The busy ports of Manila, San Fernando, Subic Bay, Cebu and Davao each have two designated Admiralty Courts. Considering that the Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, trade and commerce is heavily reli - ant on sea transport. The shipping cases filed with the Admiralty Courts cover a wide range of both wet and dry shipping claims. 1.2 Port State Control The Philippines accepted the Memorandum of Under - standing on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region (or the “Tokyo MOU”) in 1994. The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the body vested with the authority to conduct vessel inspections, also issued Memorandum Circular 03-20 in relation to Port State Control for the purposes of establishing a uni - form implementation of the various international con - vention standards on foreign-flagged vessels calling at any port of the Republic of the Philippines. Under the Philippine Coast Guard Law of 2009, the powers of the PCG are extensive. Among them are:
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