Practice areasWhat we build and defend
Practice areas
Corporate
Company formation, governance, corporate housekeeping, and SEC filings.
- Company formation
- Governance
- Corporate housekeeping
- SEC filings
- Shareholder agreements
- Setting up from abroad
Employment
Contracts, workplace policies, disciplinary process, restructuring, and dismissal disputes.
- Employment contracts
- Workplace policies
- Disciplinary process
- Redundancy and retrenchment
- Illegal dismissal
- Employers based abroad
Family and Estate
Estate settlement, succession planning, and family arrangements.
- Annulment
- Declaration of nullity
- Recognition of foreign divorce
- Legal separation
- Custody and support
- Estate settlement
- Succession planning
Litigation
Civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings, and pre-litigation demands.
- Civil actions
- Criminal matters
- Cyber libel
- Property disputes
- Administrative cases
- Appeals
Real Estate
Due diligence, transfers, leases, and property disputes.
- Due diligence
- Foreign buyers
- Transfers and registration
- Leases
- Property disputes
- Development
Special Projects
Matters that do not fit a standard engagement.
- Cross-practice mandates
- Internal investigations
- Governance reviews
- Outside counsel
PeopleHow a matter is handled
A growing boutique, built to stay close to the work.
Badayos & Badayos Law is a growing boutique practice, working from one office in Cebu City for clients in the Philippines and abroad. We keep the practice small so that every matter stays close to a partner.
We work in teams. A partner takes the matter and stays with it, working with an associate and, where the matter calls for it, a paralegal. We settle who is on your matter at the start, and that does not change.
The people who draft an agreement are the people who would have to argue it in court, and they draft with that in mind.
InsightsWhat we publish
Insights
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A foreigner may buy a condominium unit only where a corporation holds the common areas
It turns on whether the project’s common areas are held by a condominium corporation or co-owned by the unit owners. A foreigner cannot buy in the second kind.
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A foreigner cannot own Philippine land, and the exceptions are narrow
The prohibition is close to absolute, the inheritance exception reaches only intestate succession, and buying in a spouse’s name has two outcomes.
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A land title transfer goes through four offices in a fixed order
Four offices in a fixed order, each of which will not act until the one before it has finished, and the defects that stop a file.
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Four taxes fall on a land title transfer, and the property’s classification decides which apply
Whether the property is a capital or an ordinary asset decides which tax applies, at what rate, and by when. The four taxes run on three deadlines.
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Foreign ownership starts at 100 percent, and the Negative List is the exception
A foreigner may own up to 100 percent of a Philippine company. The question is whether the activity is on the Negative List.
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Filipino ownership of a company is counted twice, on voting shares and on total shares
The 60 percent is applied twice, to voting shares and to total shares. The Supreme Court called the each-class reading obiter dictum.
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Cyber libel is ordinary libel published online, and only the author is liable
Cyber libel is the libel the Revised Penal Code has always defined, committed through a computer system, and only the author of the post is liable.
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Cyber libel prescribes in one year, and the year runs from discovery
The Supreme Court settled it En Banc in April 2026: one year, counted from the day the post was discovered rather than the day it went up.
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Final pay and separation pay are not the same thing
Separation pay is one of the nine items the Department lists as final pay, and whether it is owed at all turns on why the job ended.
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Registering a One Person Corporation
The Code lets one person own the whole company, and still requires a nominee, an alternate nominee, and a corporate secretary who is somebody else.
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A One Person Corporation’s obligations start at the certificate
The certificate is where the obligations start: officers within fifteen days, a bond if the owner is also treasurer, a minutes book, and an annual filing.
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Having a foreign divorce recognized in the Philippines
A divorce obtained abroad does not end a Philippine marriage by itself. A Philippine court has to recognize it, and the case turns on proving the foreign law.
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Mel Joseph G. Castro promoted to Underbar Associate
Mel Joseph G. Castro, a paralegal at Badayos & Badayos Law since November 2024, was promoted to Underbar Associate on 21 September 2026.
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Castro and Arcamo received FLP awards
Mel Joseph placed third in the Foundation for Liberty and Prosperity’s Dissertation Writing Contest, and Franz Erika was selected for its scholarship program.
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Badayos & Badayos Law turns two
The Firm opened on 14 September 2024 with two lawyers and one member of staff. Two years on it has four lawyers, four in legal support, and three staff.