Short answer. No. Rule 40 flatly bars any motion for extension of time to file a motion for new trial or reconsideration of an MTC decision. You have fifteen days from notice of the judgment to file it, and a timely motion pauses that period — but you cannot buy extra time to prepare the motion itself.
What the law says
No motion for extension of time to file a motion for new trial or reconsideration shall be allowed.
Rule 40, Section 2 — When to appeal. Read the full provision →
The extension itself is barred
Rule 40, Section 2 governs appeals from a Municipal Trial Court decision to the Regional Trial Court, and it closes the door on this particular request in plain terms: no motion for extension of time to file a motion for new trial or reconsideration shall be allowed. It makes no difference how good the reason is — a lawyer's caseload, a client out of the country, a records request that is taking time. The rule does not distinguish between excuses; it simply removes the option. You either file the motion within the period the rule gives you, or you lose the chance to file it at all.
The window you actually have
An appeal from the MTC may be taken within fifteen days after notice to the appellant of the judgment or final order appealed from. Where the case requires a record on appeal, the appellant instead has thirty days from that same notice to file both the notice of appeal and the record on appeal. A motion for new trial or reconsideration has to be filed within whichever of those two periods applies to your case — there is no separate, longer clock for the motion itself.
How a timely motion changes the count
What the rule gives you instead of an extension is an interruption: the period of appeal shall be interrupted by a timely motion for new trial or reconsideration. Filing the motion on time pauses the running of your fifteen- or thirty-day period. If the court denies the motion, the clock resumes from where it stopped, using whatever days remained when you filed it — it does not restart. Because there is no extension to fall back on, the practical answer is to prepare the motion well before the deadline rather than to count on buying more time near the end.
What happens if the motion is filed even one day late
This bar binds every appellant equally, regardless of how the case is otherwise proceeding — it is not a courtesy the court can waive simply because a party asks nicely. A motion for new trial or reconsideration filed even one day after the fifteen- or thirty-day period runs is treated as filed out of time, and the judgment or final order it was meant to challenge becomes final and executory in the meantime. That finality is what makes the strict bar on extensions consequential rather than a mere technicality.