PCC void

The search is on for a new toplevel technocrat at the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).

One of the PCC’s Commissioners, lawyer El Cid Butuyan, had to fly back to the US—where he was based for many years before joining the fledgling PCC—to attend to pressing family matters.

Butuyan, who served the PCC from February 2016 to July 2017, served as head of investigations and litigation for the World Bank East Asia-Pacific team in a unit that probes fraud and corruption in World Bankfinanced projects. He is also a faculty member at Harvard Law School where he finished his Masters of Laws. After the PCC stint, Butuyan is expected to return to his old unit in the World Bank.

PCC is the country’s antitrust body mandated under the Philippine Competition Act to review mergers and acquisitions to ensure that these deals will not prejudice the interest of consumers. It is tasked to review corporate deals valued at P1 billion or higher.