PCC officer-in-charge sets resolution of 6 competition cases before year-end

THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) aims to conclude the investigation on six ongoing enforcement cases before the year ends.

At a virtual news conference on wednesday, PCC Commissioner Johannes R. Bernabe, who will serve the unexpired term of former PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan, said, “There are a number of targets which we have set for our enforcement office for 2022 and this is for six statement of objections or show cause order or some form of remedy or conclusion to any investigation that is ongoing whether two years old or more or less than two years and for these to be concluded, six cases to be concluded before the end of the year.”

Currently, Bernabe said, there are four statements of objection arising from investigation by their enforcement office that are already before the commission for final ruling. Specifically, he added, these involve various sectors “ranging from tourism to medical services to trade associations and property development arrangements with Internet service providers.” With these statements of objection that have been filed, Bernabe emphasized that they are bound to render decisions on these before the year ends.

However, he stressed, “Of course the appropriate due process that is to be accorded the identified respondents will be followed in which case verified comments will be filed by them if not already filed.”

On that basis, the PCC officer-in-charge said the commission will either adjudicate or if necessary conduct hearings and later on proceed with reasonable haste towards a conclusion by issuing rulings or decisions on these cases.

Another priority for the competition watchdog is to ensure that whatever cases that are still pending before the enforcement office, particularly those which have been ongoing for more than two years in terms of investigation, shall be concluded by the enforcement office either by way of termination, archiving by filing statement of objections when warranted, or pursuing some form of “non-adversarial” remedies to put a stop to any anti-competitive practice if such is discovered by the enforcement office.

Further, Bernabe said that the commissioners have internally imposed on themselves to observe the “two-year limit” to conclude these investigations.

However, he added, “Of course that twoyear limit is subject to exceptions,” citing difficulty to obtain necessary evidence; conducting the economic analysis which might lead to a finding of either concerted practice leading towards collusion or possible abuse of an entity’s dominant position. In these cases, the officer in charge stressed that the two-year limit could be extended.

Bernabe also reminded that the moratorium on compulsory notification of mergers and acquisitions with transaction values below P50 billion which took effect in September 2020 under the Bayanihan 2 Act, lapses in September 2022. Prior to this, the PCC set the thresholds at P2.4 billion for transaction size and P6 billion for size of party.

However, Bernabe said that given the adjustment in inflation rates and other economic indicators, “We may see that these thresholds that we applied prior to the Bayanihan 2 will be revised as well.”

“But nonetheless we expect that voluntary notifications will also continue as they have materialized in the past two years but we expect that more of the mandatory notifications of transactions which exceed these old thresholds will resume and so we are preparing for this as well,” added Bernabe.