PCC boosts capacity to break Philippine cartels

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has intensified its capacity to crack down on cartels in the country.

The country’s antitrust authority said 10 PCC members composed of economists and lawyers recently underwent intensive training in Indonesia on cartel detection and investigation through case studies, analyses, and scenario-based activities.

The intensive training is seen to speed up the PCC’s capacity-building in fighting cartels and businesses engaged in anti-competitive conduct in the Philippines.

“The Philippine Competition Commission is really intent on stopping and curtailing cartel conduct,” said Ferdinand Redulla the group’s assistant director for competition enforcement.

As an antitrust body, PCC can order disgorgement, null contracts, and mete out fines and penalties for violations of the Philippine Competition Law, with administrative fines of at least P100 million for the first offense.

“The fines are huge because they are really designed to deter anti-competitive acts, including abuse of dominant position conducts prescribed in the law,” Redulla said.

According to the PCC official, the processes and challenges of detecting and investigating cartels in the Philippines were discussed in synergy with international competition experts from Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

“They shared their real-life experiences as an agency in terms of how they were able to do it from start to finish. They were able to give us working templates that we can adopt and exchange in market studies,” Redulla said.

With support from the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, the Competition Law Implementation Program provides specialized training for ASEAN member-states focusing on practical skills and intel exhange.

Last month, the PCC said it forged a partnership with the Competition Commission of Singapore to bolster its capacity in enforcing the country’s competition law.

Officially organized in February 2016, PCC is mandated to implement the national competition policy and prohibit anti-competitive agreements, abuses of dominant market position, and anti-competitive business mergers and acquisitions. 

The PCC has reviewed at least  65 mergers and acquisitions since its inception.

It has also received four referrals for possible anti-competitive conduct, spanning in a diverse set of sectors such as power, cement and rice.