PCC seeks to increase powers via law changes
Credit to Author: Anna Leah E. Gonzales| Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:15:55 +0000
THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) announced on Friday it would propose to Congress this year amendments to the Philippine Competition Act that would authorize the agency to increase fines and conduct raids, among others.
In a year-end report, PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan said the proposed amendments to Republic Act 10667 — the law’s formal name — sought to address issues that emerged during the first three years of the competition watchdog’s operations.
“The amendments will be aimed at strengthening [the] PCC’s mandate and operations, keeping in mind that actions in its early years spell the basis for future enforcement actions,” Balisacan said.
“The proposed amendments will include raising the amount of pecuniary penalties; giving [the] PCC the power to conduct dawn raids without a court order; and reinforcing its primary, original and exclusive jurisdiction over all competition cases,” he added.
The PCC will also explore expanding its mandate to include consumer protection, recognizing the complementarity between competition and consumer protection work, according to Balisacan.
He said that, as prescribed by RA 10667, PCC would also adjust its schedule of administrative fines in August to maintain their real value from the time the law was enacted in 2015.
Besides these proposed amendments, other priorities of the PCC this year include focusing on competition analysis and enforcement on telecommunications, retail, energy and electricity, transportation, construction, health and pharmaceuticals, and food.
“Our initiatives in these sectors are intended to unlock the economic potential of these industries that have long been protected by regulations,” Balisacan said.
“Our topmost priority is to effectively investigate anticompetitive agreements and conduct, bearing in mind that effective deterrence requires not only the threat of penalties, but also effective detection and prosecution of infringements,” he added.
“With leniency and dawn raids added to our armory of enforcement tools, we are now more equipped to exercise our full investigative powers.”
Balisacan said the PCC would also issue a circular on the process for exemption from compulsory notification of unsolicited public-private partnership projects to further streamline its merger review process.
Other priorities include undertaking in-depth research to support merger reviews and competition enforcement; establishing ties with its regional counterparts, such as the Consumer Commission of Singapore and the Hong Kong Competition Commission; tapping the assistance of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for a third-party peer review of the PCC’s processes and outputs; and establishing inter-agency ties with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, the Intellectual Property Office, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
“Amid the economic challenges that arose and persisted in 2019, our country’s growth trajectory and broadly improving social indicators show that we are on track to achieve our long-term national vision,” Balisacan said.
“Sustaining these gains requires further deepening of policy and institutional reforms. Competition policy is a key tool that can be used to contribute to sustained and pro-poor economic growth,” he added.