PH2020 07 securit exchanging commission - Lawyers

Client Update: Philippines 2020 JULY

© Gatmaytan Yap Patacsil Gutierrez & Protacio (C&G Law) | 1

Securities and Exchange Commission provides options for the submission of Reports, Applications, and Other Documents

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) provides options

for the submission of Reports, Applications, and Other Documents

During the Effectivity of all Community Quarantine Imposed due to

COVID-191

In light of the imposition of community quarantine in the National Capital Region due to the COVID-19

pandemic and the continuous need to comply with social distancing requirements and other public

health measures in the receiving, processing and submission of documents, the covered companies

(i.e., investment companies, registered issuers of proprietary and non-proprietary shares/timeshares,

public companies, corporate governance institutional training providers and publicly-listed companies

under the supervision of the Corporate Governance and Finance Department (“CGFD”)) are advised to

file or submit their reports, applications, requests, compliance, and other documents to the SEC, through

ANY of the following means:

1. Via courier services- Printed or hard copies of documents with wet signature and proper

notarization may be sent through courier or Philippine Postal Corp. using the SEC Expreses

Nationwide Submission (“SENS”) facility.

Printed hard copies of documents shall be deemed to have been filed on the date they were

received by courier. Such date must clearly appear on the label or packaging of the courier.

2. Via electronic email- Scanned copies of the printed or hard copies of documents with wet

signature and proper notarization may be sent in Portable Format (PDF) through email at the

following addresses:

1 Issued on June 24, 2020



Documents which require payments

(filing/processing fees)

CGFD Account ([email protected])

Documents which do not require payment

(filing/processing fees)

Information Communication Technology

Department (“ICTD”) Account

([email protected])

CGFD Account ([email protected])

Unless otherwise required by the SEC, the submission of documents through e-mail shall

constitute full and official submission such that the covered company shall no longer be required

to file the hard copies, provided all the requirements for each type of document are complied

with.

Documents and other requests that need pre-evaluation and/or subject to processing fees, if

filed online, shall only be considered officially received and complete upon payment of the filing

fee. A covered company may request for, and be issued, electronic copies of the Payment

Assessment Form by sending a request via email to [email protected].

Except for documents that need pre-evaluation and are subject to processing fees, the scanned

notarized documents shall be deemed to have been filed on the date the email was sent to the

CGFD account only or to the ICTD account with copy furnished to the CGFD account, as the

case may be, during working days. Documents filed on a holiday or beyond 5:00PM on a

working day shall be considered filed on the next business day.

3. Via courier services and electronic email- A covered company may file printed/hard copies of

documents through a courier of their choice or the post office by accomplishing the SENS Form

(Option 1) and, at the same time, furnish the CGFD with a scanned copy of the documents with

or without payment through email at [email protected] (Option 2).

In this case, documents shall be deemed to have been filed on the date they were received by

the courier. The scanned copy emailed to the CGFD shall serve as notification only for the

submission of the document. The document filed through courier or mail shall be considered

as the official submission.

The SEC has also stated that these options are in addition to the previous modes of submission of

reports, letters, requests, and other documents that it announced in a previous notice.2 Therefore, any

2 Issued on June 8, 2020. The previous modes of submission were: (a) the direct submission of the documents to the CGFD in the SEC Main Office in Pasay City and (b) the filing of the hard copies of the documents, through any courier or registered mail, which were sent in advance via the e-mail of CGFD.

mailto:[email protected]







of the three options mentioned above may also be availed of by the company. However, covered

companies can choose only one mode of filing in submitting their reports, applications, and other

documents.

Filing of 2019 Annual Reports and 2020 First Quarter Reports3

In a Notice issued last July 3, 2020, the SEC has reminded all publicly listed companies and other

companies under the supervision of Markets and Securities Regulation Department (“MSRD”) of the

deadline for the submission of SEC Form 17-A (2019 Annual Report) and SEC 17-Q (2020 First Quarter

Report) which was last June 30, 2020 or 60 days from the date of lifting of travel restrictions for

companies that have foreign operations.

The SEC stated that companies which were unable to comply with the abovementioned deadline to

submit SEC Form 17-L (Notice of Inability to File Annual Report and Quartery Report) within five days

from the issuance of this Notice. This SEC Form 17-L shall be filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange

EDGE portal ( for publicly-listed companies) or through the e-mail of MSRD,

[email protected] (for issuers of securities under MSRD supervision).

Interim Guidelines for the Limited Manual Operations of Office of

General Counsel4

The Office of the General Counsel (“OGC”) has announced the resumption of its manual operations

under a skeleton workforce, as well as the implementation of a work-from-home arrangement, for the

duration of the state of national emergency due to COVID-19.

The Interim Guidelines that the OGC issued on July 3, 2020 enumerated the processes involved in order

to avail the services of their office to ensure minimal face-to-face transactions and compliance with the

public health standards and regulations. These services include: (a) requests for certified true

copies/plain copies of documents related to cases; (b) filing of requests for legal opinion; (c) filing of

petition and appeal; and other (d) filing of responsive pleadings and other documents. The cut-off for

the receipt of physical documents shall be at 2:00 p.m..

The limited manual operations of the OGC at the SEC Main Office, Pasay City, is between 9:00 a.m. to

3:00 p.m.. Walk-in and phone consultations of legal queries are temporarily unavailable. Instead, the

OGC encourages the sending of inquiries through their e-mail: [email protected]. Other general

documents shall also be sent through e-mail or through registered mail or private courier. The cut-off

3 Issued on July 3, 2020. 4 Issued on July 3, 2020.





for processing of e-mails shall be at 3:00 p.m.. Within a period of not exceeding three working days, the

OGC will send a reply confirming the receipt of the e-mail.

The OGC has also announced that the reglementary periods in the filing of petitions, appeals, motions,

and other pleadings under the 2016 Rule of Procedure of the SEC shall start to run beginning July 6,

2020.5 The conduct of hearings and preliminary conferences remains suspended until further notice.

The Interim Guidelines of the OGC shall take effect on July 6, 2020 and shall continue to be in force

unless modified or recalled by the OGC.

5 See SEC Advisory dated July 3, 2020 on the Running of the Reglementary Periods in the Filing of Petitions, Appeals, Motions, and other Pleadings under the 2016 Rules of Procedure of SEC.



Contacts

Jaime Renato B. Gatmaytan Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 1978 [email protected]

Ben Dominic R. Yap Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 1978 [email protected]

Norma Margarita B. Patacsil Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 - 1977 [email protected]

Mary Thel T. Mundin Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 1978 [email protected]

Albert Vincent Y. Yu Chang Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 1978 [email protected]

Kristine Ninotschka L. Evangelista Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 1978 [email protected]

Deborah Miriam S. Lacson Partner T +632 8894 0377 to 79 F +632 8552 - 1977 [email protected]







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This Update is solely intended to provide general information and does not provide any advice or create any relationship, whether legally binding or otherwise. Rajah & Tann Asia and its member firms do not accept, and fully disclaim, responsibility for any loss or damage which may result from accessing or relying on this Update.



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PH2020 07 securit exchanging commission - Lawyers

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