{"id":5404,"date":"2020-05-15T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/?p=5404"},"modified":"2020-05-28T12:45:53","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T04:45:53","slug":"suspension-of-hearings-and-deadlines-for-ecq-and-gcq-provinces-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/suspension-of-hearings-and-deadlines-for-ecq-and-gcq-provinces-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspension of Court Hearings and Extension of Deadlines for MECQ and GCQ Provinces\/Areas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The IATF has released the <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/community-quarantine-classifications-beginning-16-may-2020\/\">list of areas or provinces<\/a> under General Community Quarantine (<strong>GCQ<\/strong>) and Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (<strong>MECQ<\/strong>) [Update: quarantine classifications from <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/community-quarantine-classifications-1-15-june-2020-philippines\/\">1 to 15 June 2020<\/a>]. Given this development, the Supreme Court released the guidelines for provinces\/areas under <strong>GCQ<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/guidelines-for-courts-in-areas-placed-under-gcq-from-16-to-31-may-2020\/\">Administrative Circular No. 40-2020<\/a> for 16-31 May 2020, citing Administrative Circular No. 36-2020 for 1-15 May 2020) and <strong>MECQ<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/extension-of-deadlines-and-suspension-of-deadlines-during-the-modified-enhanced-community-quarantine-mecq-until-31-may-2020\/\">Administrative Circular No. 39-2020<\/a> for 16-31 May 2020). This post is a consolidation\/summary of the two circulars, updated as of 15 May 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">HEARINGS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>All courts in areas under <strong>MECQ<\/strong> shall remain <strong>physically closed<\/strong> to all court users until 31 May 2020. In-court hearings remain <strong>suspended<\/strong>. However, trial courts may conduct hearings by videoconferencing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all courts in <strong>GCQ<\/strong> areas, hearings may be conducted either in-court or through videoconferencing. For in-court hearings, the health hygiene protocols and other public medical standards,&nbsp;<em>e.g.,&nbsp;<\/em>wearing of face masks and face shields, subjecting everyone to a no-contact thermal scanning, and observance of social distancing, shall be strictly observed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of 15 May 2020, the following areas are under <strong>MECQ<\/strong>: (a) entire National Capital Region; (b) Laguna Province; and (c) Cebu City. These MECQ areas are expressly mentioned in the <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/extension-of-deadlines-and-suspension-of-deadlines-during-the-modified-enhanced-community-quarantine-mecq-until-31-may-2020\/\">Administrative Circular No. 39-2020<\/a>. On the other hand, <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/guidelines-for-courts-in-areas-placed-under-gcq-from-16-to-31-may-2020\/\">Administrative Circular No. 40-2020<\/a> does not enumerate the areas under <strong>GCQ<\/strong>. Based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/community-quarantine-classifications-beginning-16-may-2020\/\">current list<\/a> of the IATF, all other non-MECQ areas are GCQ areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">DEADLINES<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In both MECQ and GCQ areas, the filing of petitions, appeals, complaints, motions, pleadings and other court submissions that <strong>fall due up to 31 May 2020<\/strong> is <strong>extended<\/strong> for 30 calendar days, counted from <strong>1 June 2020<\/strong>. Nevertheless, parties may choose to file pleadings and other court submissions through electronic means, if preferred and able.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[See also <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/pilot-testing-of-hearings-of-criminal-cases-involving-persons-deprived-of-liberty-through-videoconferencing\/\">Pilot Testing of Hearings of Criminal Cases involving Persons Deprived of Liberty through Videoconferencing<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The IATF has released the list of areas or provinces under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) [Update: quarantine classifications from 1 to 15 June 2020]. Given this development, the Supreme Court released the guidelines for provinces\/areas under GCQ (Administrative Circular No. 40-2020 for 16-31 May 2020, citing Administrative Circular No. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1199,1319,429,941,821,1245,824,90,815],"class_list":["post-5404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-litigation-category","tag-court-filings","tag-court-hearings","tag-courts","tag-ecq","tag-enhanced-community-quarantine","tag-gcq","tag-general-community-quarantine","tag-philippines","tag-trial-courts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5404"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7328,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5404\/revisions\/7328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}