THE PHILIPPINE Competition Commission (PCC) wants more time in reviewing mergers and acquisitions, saying the current deadline is “very tight.”
“Just to compare it with other jurisdictions, ‘yung timelines nila for phase one and phase two are even longer than ours . . . So ‘yung 60 days, 60 calendar days, for phase two, very tight po siya,” said Lawyer Amabelle C. Asuncion, one of the anti-trust body’s commissioners.
(Compared with other jurisdictions, their timelines for phases one and two are even longer than ours . . . So the 60 calendar days for phase two is very tight.)
“And when mergers go to phase two, it means it’s a problematic merger. So we really need that time,” she said during a congressional committee hearing on competition last week in Pasay City.
“Of course, it doesn’t mean we will always exhaust the 60 days but to the extent that we have that period of initial review and make correct assessments, kailangan po talaga namin ‘yon (we really need it),” she added.
The official was responding to lawmakers who opened the floor for the PCC to make requests or appeals.
In a separate interview, Ms. Asuncion said the agency’s legal division is already reviewing the proposal to stretch the timetable.
“Pinagaaralan talaga ‘yan ng legal team namin (Our legal team is really studying it). So we’ll come up with, I don’t know if it’s a position paper or a lobby,” she added.
The request would call for an amendment of the Philippine Competition Act of 2015, which states that “in no case shall the total period for review by the Commission of the subject agreement exceed ninety (90) days from initial notification by the parties.”
This covers phase one’s 30 days and phase two’s 60 days, which are both calendar days.
“So sometimes, parties will file their notification on a Friday, so it’s really very tight,” Ms. Asuncion said.
She added that some jurisdictions, such as the United States and the European Union, grant their anti-trust bodies a so-called “stop-the-clock” power that allows them to suspend the review period in cases they deem necessary.
Ms. Asuncion said that power could be used to pause the countdown of their timeline, a mechanism that is useful when the commission awaits the response of parties, among other situations.
Ahead of the amendment, the PCC is working first to hurdle a bigger concern: Republic Act No. 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018 (EoDB).
“Mr. Chair, it’s posing some difficulty in our part. We are still hoping that we’ll not fall under that law because, as it is, the 30-day period to finish phase one is already very tight. The analysis that we have to do, the data gathering, is very intense. And that’s 30 calendar days. That’s not working days,” she said during the committee discussion.
“To subject us to this 20-working day period restriction is very challenging if we’re going to be covered by the law,” she added.
With the draft of the law’s implementing rules and regulations already complete, the PCC said it was fast-tracking to raise its appeal to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which is the temporary secretariat of the Anti-red Tape Authority.
DTI Secretary Ramon M. Lopez had said that the agency would go through a consultative process as it comes up with a definition of “frontline” transactions, which the EoDB intends to cover to streamline business applications.
Aside from the PCC, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines has also raised concerns over the EoDB law and has already lodged to the DTI a set of recommendations for a fix. — Janina C. Lim
