A basic legal framework on intermediary liability for copyright infringement is absent in Philippine law and jurisprudence. Arguably, safe harbour clauses are present in the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (RA 8792) and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (RA 10175). However, the definition of an intermediary in these laws limits its capacity to provide a safe harbour. Particularly, RA 8792’s scope is limited to electronic documents, while RA 10175 is limited to cybercrimes defined under the law. This makes safe harbours in Philippine law sectoral or content-specific.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in Philippine law and jurisprudence. Arguably, safe harbour clauses are present in the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (RA 8792) and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (RA 10175). However, the definition of an intermediary in these laws limits its capacity to provide a safe harbour. Particularly, RA 8792’s scope is limited to electronic documents, while RA 10175 is limited to cybercrimes defined under the law. This makes safe harbours in Philippine law sectoral or content-specific.

According to Art. 5 of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card Registration Act, the Philippines imposes an identity requirement for SIM registration. Anyone wanting to purchase a SIM card has to provide their national ID card or a passport in case of foreigners to activate a new prepaid SIM card.

In June 2022, the national security advisor of the Philippines requested the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to block 27 websites, alleging their affiliation with "Communist-Terrorist" groups and citing the Anti-Terror Act as justification. The targeted websites included Philippine news sites Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly, as well as several affiliated with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Some users experienced difficulty accessing Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly following the blocking order. Toward the end of August 2022, Bulatlat reportedly became accessible again after a regional trial court found the NTC in indirect contempt of an earlier court injunction favouring the outlet. Despite the decision to restore access to Bulatlat, the NTC's blocking order remained in force. In October 2022, the same regional trial court reaffirmed its writ of preliminary injunction against the NTC despite appeals from the commission, ensuring continued access to Bulatlat and, in effect, to the other listed websites as well. As of June 2023, reports indicate that some of the 27 websites remained blocked on certain networks.

The indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 3 in Philippines for the year 2023. This corresponds to "Rarely but there have been a few occasions throughout the year when the government shut down domestic access to Internet."

The Foreign Investment Act requires the publication of the Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL) every two years, which outlines sectors in which foreign investment is restricted. According to List A of the 2022 FINL, advertising is limited to 30% foreign equity.

In 2017, the Philippine government enacted the Philippine National Strategic Goods List Annex 2, regulating the strategic dual-use items for both export and import for national security reasons. Some of these dual-use items are electronics and computers that reach a specific technical level that qualifies them as fit for military use.

Corruption and irregularities in customs processing in the Philippines are reported to persist, including incidents of undue and costly delays, irregularities in the valuation process, inspection and 100% verification of some goods, and inconsistent assessment of fees.

The Philippines is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

The Philippines has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows fair use, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission (Republic Act No. 8293). Sections 184-190 list the exceptions, which include the recitation or performance of a work once it has been lawfully made accessible to the public if done privately and free of charge or if made strictly for a charitable or religious institution or society; the making of quotations from a published work if they are compatible with fair use and only to the extent justified for the purpose, including quotations from newspaper articles and periodicals in the form of press summaries; the reproduction or communication to the public by mass media of articles on current political, social, economic, scientific or religious topic, lectures, addresses and other works of the same nature; among others.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in the Philippines. Although the country has made progress in intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement since 2014, rights holders have raised concerns about increasing online piracy, ineffective IP enforcement due to limited capacity and expertise, and slow prosecution and conviction of cases.

The Philippines has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

The Philippines has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

The Philippines lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. According to Section 4 of the Intellectual Property Code, the protection of undisclosed information as an independent Intellectual Property right is recognised. In addition, the Revised Penal Code prohibits the unauthorised revelation of secrets or confidential information by either private individuals or public officers. Moreover, the Supreme Court ruling (Air Philippines Corporation v. Pennswell, Inc.) has extensively discussed the concept and defined a trade secret as a plan or process, tool, mechanism or compound known only to its owner and those of employees to whom it is necessary to confide it.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the Philippines to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is not practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.