PRESS RELEASE
6 March 2023

 PCC completes new admin with IP law expert, educator as new Commissioner

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) welcomes Atty. Ferdinand M. Negre as its latest appointed Commissioner, marking the completed bench of the five-member antitrust authority under a new administration.

Commissioner Negre’s expertise cuts across various technical and leadership roles in law and business. He is a certified public accountant by training, an IP law expert by trade, and a legal educator in practice.

Prior to his appointment to the PCC, he was the dean at the Manuel L. Quezon University School of Law and was previously the chairperson of the Commercial Law and Intellectual Property Department at the Ateneo Law School.

Atty. Negre is a founder of Bengzon Negre Untalan Law, practicing exclusively on intellectual property law cases. This flexibility and expertise earned him a post as a member of the Supreme Court Sub-Committee on Special Rules in IP Cases. He also served as an Examiner for Mercantile Law in the 2014 Bar Examinations.

He is a sought-after resource person on intellectual property issues in different universities, government agencies, and international organizations, including at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA), and for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education of lawyers.

He is a founding trustee and an officer of the Intellectual Property Professors and Researchers Organization of the Philippines Inc., a member of the American Bar Association, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the Philippine Bar Association, and the Intellectual Property Association of the Philippines.

Atty. Negre’s corporate legal practice is deeply anchored on various technical aspects of trade and held key positions in business associations. He was president of the Licensing Executives Society of the Philippines, corporate secretary of the Philippine Franchise Association, and corporate counsel of the Philippine Retailers Association.

He earned his commerce degree from the University of Santo Tomas in 1986, received his law degree from the Ateneo Law School in 1991, and obtained his Master of Intellectual Property degree at Pierce University in New Hampshire, USA, in 1993. In exercise of his interest and expertise in IP law, he attended the Intellectual Property Program at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center in Germany and went to the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute in London in 2004-2005.

In an oath-taking ceremony earlier today, Commissioner Negre was accompanied by his family and greeted by PCC key officers who have worked with him in the Commission’s codification project last year.

With an eye on encouraging innovation and sustaining fair competition in business, Atty. Negre is joined by Chairperson Michael G. Aguinaldo and fellow Commissioners Marah Victoria S. Querol, Michael B. Peloton, and Lolibeth Ramit-Medrano to implement the Philippine Competition Act.

His seven-year term ends in January 2030.

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Link: https://www.phcc.gov.ph/press-releases/pcc-comm-fmnegre/