Concerned individuals are advised that under prevailing Swiss Federal laws, hearings via videoconference can never take place inside an Embassy or Consulate as the same are not cloaked with "extra-territoriality". 

The Embassy had in fact been officially advised by the FDFA that while the premises of an embassy or consular post are inviolable under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, nonetheless the same are not extraterritorial. 

Consequently, the conduct of hearings by videoconference at a foreign diplomatic mission or consular post in Switzerland constitutes an act of foreign public authority on Swiss territory. This means that such hearings can only be performed in accordance with the procedures of Mutual Legal Assistance, and that Article 271 of the Swiss Penal Code penalizes any person, including diplomatic and consular officers, who carries out activities on behalf of a foreign state on Swiss territory without lawful authority, where such activities are the responsibility of a Swiss public official, a matter which had been duly conveyed by the Department of Foreign Affairs - Office of Treaties and Legal Affairs (DFA-OTLA) to the Court Administrator of the Philippine Supreme Court on 31 August 2021. 

Considering that the parties to a civil case in the Philippines has no legal standing under international law and cannot directly request the permission of the concerned Swiss Authorities, every request must be coursed through the DFA-OTLA and the Department of Justice (DOJ), as the central and competent authority for the Philippine side. 

The DOJ, through diplomatic channels (i.e., DFA-OTLA and the Embassy/Philippine Consulate General), will then endorse the request to the Federal Department of Justice and the Police (FDJP), which is the competent authority for the Swiss side. 

Noting that there is no mutual legal assistance treaty in civil cases between the Philippines and Switzerland, the request from the Philippine side may be made on the basis of comity and reciprocity. 

The legal counsels / lawyers of the concerned individuals are requested to coordinate with the DFA-OTLA in line with the existing Department protocols. The DFA directory may be viewed from the DFA website: https://dfa.gov.ph/, or directly through this link. 

END