THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is preparing to request additional staff from the national government to aid in its investigations, as cases start piling up after its two-year transitory period lapsed earlier this month.
As the PCC starts imposing sanctions on those engaging in anti-competitive agreements, its chairman, Arsenio M. Balisacan, said that the agency will seek staff support from the Office of the President, as it expects its caseload to increase.
“Given the resources that we have, obviously we don’t have enough. We are expecting more cases especially after today. We are preparing a submission for the Office of the President for supplemental staff support,” Mr. Balisacan told BusinessWorld in a chance interview earlier this month.
“We need more resources, more manpower as we move into the full enforcement stage,” he said.
The PCC chair said that he is looking into requesting about 100 additional support staff for its key offices.
“We are still finalizing with the submission but I expect a hundred more people to lift up our investigation team, economics team, and the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) team,” Mr. Balisacan said.
Despite its lack of personnel, Mr. Balisacan said that the agency will observe the review period as prescribed by the law.
“We’ll comply. I think we can live with that.”
According to Mr. Balisacan, the PCC selects cases up for review in terms of the potential impact on consumers and the economy.
“The prioritization is a basic issue for us, because we can’t obviously tackle everything. We have to choose one that’s very strategic,” he said.
In an earlier statement, the agency said that it will stick to its P1-billion threshold mandatory M&A notification for firms. However, Mr. Balisacan said: “In any case, we will be reviewing the threshold again, in due time, and will raise it if new data and our experience with M&A support such move.”
The PCC, an independent quasi-judicial entity, is tasked to conduct a preliminary inquiry of up to 90 days after a verified complaint or referral. The body will then decide whether to approve the case or to move to a full-scale investigation.
Currently, the two year-old anti-trust body has initiated three full administrative investigations, in power, cement, and another industry that the PCC has declined to identify. It has also commenced a preliminary investigation into an alleged cartel in the garlic industry.
For M&A deals — where the PCC requires firms to notify the body for transactions worth P1 billion and up — the agency has received 114 merger notifications with a total value of P1.95 trillion, with the majority from the manufacturing, financial, electricity, and transportation sectors.
Of the 114 notifications, 32 have been reviewed. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan
