The afternoon of Sunday, 5 September 2027 is Commercial and Taxation Laws: 20% of the weighted general average, in one sitting, on the first day. It is the largest sitting after Remedial Law and it is the one candidates most often study unevenly — deeply in corporations, thinly in banking, not at all in the special commercial laws.
This article is the map, in the syllabus's own order.
The seven blocks
| Block | What it contains | Character |
|---|---|---|
| I. Business organizations | Corporations under the Revised Corporation Code (RA 11232) | The biggest block, and the most examinable |
| II. Insurance law | General principles through rescission, including insurable interest, concealment, representation, warranties, double insurance | Text-heavy: the Insurance Code, section by section |
| III. Transportation law | Common carriers; vigilance over goods; safety of passengers | Small, doctrine-dense, case-driven |
| IV. Banking law | General banking principles (RA 8791); secrecy of deposits (RA 1405, and the foreign-currency law); the BSP charter; deposit insurance; anti-money laundering | Statutory, with precise thresholds and exceptions |
| V. Intellectual property | Patents; trademarks; copyright | Three separate regimes, each with its own statute |
| VI. Special commercial laws | Securities regulation (RA 8799); financial rehabilitation and insolvency (RA 10142); electronic commerce and digital trade; competition (RA 10667); public services (CA 146 as amended) | The block candidates skip, and it is five statutes wide |
| VII. Taxation law | General principles; national taxation under the NIRC; local taxation under the Local Government Code; real property taxation; taxpayer remedies | Half the sitting's second half, and pure doctrine |
Two observations that change how you plan.
Block VII is half of the "and". The sitting's second half is not a footnote to commercial law. It is a subject with its own principles, its own procedures and its own remedies — see how to study taxation.
Blocks V and VI are wide and thin. Five special statutes plus three IP regimes, each worth a handful of questions at most. They reward a survey plus a small number of precise points, not depth.
Where the hours go
For 180 hours on this sitting (a proportional share of 900), a defensible split:
| Block | Hours | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Corporations | 45 | The largest and most frequently examined block; the Code is long and the problems are structural |
| Taxation (all of VII) | 45 | Half the sitting's range, and doctrinal |
| Insurance | 25 | A code read section by section; distinctions are highly markable |
| Transportation | 15 | Small, but the common-carrier doctrine generates reliable questions |
| Banking | 15 | Thresholds, secrecy exceptions, AML reporting |
| Intellectual property | 15 | Three regimes, one statute each |
| Special commercial laws | 20 | Survey plus the two or three points each is actually tested on |
Adjust for what you know. What you cannot do is spend 90 hours in corporations because it is familiar and 10 in everything else.
Corporations: the block that earns the most
The Revised Corporation Code is a procedural code as much as a substantive one, and that shapes how to study it.
- Learn the life-cycle. Promotion and incorporation; the corporate personality and its consequences; shares and shareholders; the board and officers; meetings and voting; dividends; amendments; mergers and consolidation; dissolution and liquidation. A life-cycle outline makes every provision locatable.
- The three doctrines that generate questions: separate juridical personality and when the veil is pierced; the trust-fund doctrine; and the powers of the corporation (express, implied, incidental).
- The procedural provisions are checklists, and checklists are markable: the requirements for a valid meeting, the vote required for a given act, the period for a given filing. Learn them as lists rather than as prose.
- Watch the one-person corporation and the remote-meeting provisions, which the Code added and which examiners have been testing since.
Insurance: read the code as a sequence
Insurance is the block where reading the statute in order is the right method, because the Code is drafted as a sequence of events: the contract is formed, a risk is described, a loss occurs, a claim is made, a policy may be rescinded.
Three high-value areas:
- Insurable interest — who must have it, when, and over what.
- Concealment and representation — the tests, the materiality requirement, and the effect on the policy.
- Double insurance and over-insurance — the distinctions, and what the insured may recover.
Learn each as: rule, elements, effect.
Transportation: one doctrine, done well
The common-carrier doctrine is the whole block in miniature: the classification, the extraordinary diligence standard, the presumptions that follow from a loss, and the exceptions. That is a single page of doctrine that answers a disproportionate share of the questions this block produces — plus the passenger-safety branch, which is its own application of the same standard.
Banking: thresholds and exceptions
The banking block is examined through precise rules: the secrecy of deposits and its exceptions (which is where questions live), the foreign-currency regime, the BSP's powers, deposit insurance coverage, and the anti-money-laundering reporting obligations.
Two habits: memorise the exceptions as a list, and note which body may order disclosure. "The exception applies" without naming the exception scores little.
Intellectual property: three regimes, three statutes
- Patents — patentability, the application, the rights conferred, and the grounds for cancellation.
- Trademarks — registrability, the classes, the rights, and the remedies against infringement and unfair competition.
- Copyright — the works protected, the rights, the limitations, and the term.
Each regime's examinable core is a short list. Learn the lists, then one application each.
Special commercial laws: survey, then precision
Five statutes. The honest approach is a survey of each (what it regulates, who administers it, what the main prohibition or remedy is), plus precision on two or three points:
- Securities regulation — what a security is, the registration requirement, and the exemptions; the anti-fraud provision.
- Financial rehabilitation and insolvency — the difference between rehabilitation and liquidation, and the commencement and its effects.
- Electronic commerce and digital trade — the validity of electronic documents and signatures, and the obligations of online participants.
- Competition — the prohibited agreements, abuse of dominance, and merger review.
- Public services — the definition, the citizenship requirement, and the franchise regime as amended.
A survey answer scores the basic question. Precision wins the follow-up.
How to practise this sitting
The questions are typically: classify the entity or transaction; state the requirement or the vote; identify the remedy and who may invoke it; distinguish two institutions.
Three drills:
- The comparison table. For every pair the syllabus implies — ordinary versus preferred shares, concealment versus representation, rehabilitation versus liquidation, a security versus a non-security — write a two-column table with the consequence in a third.
- The provision drill. Take one section, write a fact pattern that turns on it, answer in twelve minutes.
- The half-sitting. Ten questions in two hours, alternating commercial and tax, which is how the afternoon actually feels.
For the tax half, go to how to study taxation; for the distinctions that cost marks, see commercial law traps.