PRESS RELEASE 2020-002
30 January 2020

PCC pushes for procompetitive policy, regulations, legislation in Manila Forum 2020

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is putting the spotlight on balancing the goals of competition policy, legislation, and government policies at the 2020 Manila Forum, happening on January 30-31, 2019 as it continues to push for the passage of a National Competition Policy.

With the theme, “Towards Dynamic Competition Policy, Regulations, and Legislation”, the 2020 Manila Forum will explore the interplay of the PCC’s competition mandate with existing government policies and legislation, particularly as the competition authority continues to scale up on enforcement, merger review, research, and advocacy initiatives.

“The first four years of PCC’s operations has given us a broader picture of how the competition agenda interacts with pre-existing institutions and policies. Given our learnings in the first few years, it is high time to address the interface of the regulatory conditions with the evolving competition landscape,” said PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan.

An independent study by the World Bank entitled ‘Fostering Competition in the Philippines : The Challenge of Restrictive Regulations’ in 2018 highlighted how the regulatory environment limits competition in key sectors of the economy. The PCC’s own sectoral studies and market research also reveal existing regulatory restraints impact competition in various industries.

In pursuit of its mandate under the Philippine Competition Act to advocate for procompetitive policies, the PCC continues to ramp up partnerships with sector regulators. The competition authority also established the legislative liaison office, to  imbue laws-in-the-making with competition lens, and has embarked on projects with development partners to undertake a competitive assessment of government agencies’ regulations

These efforts dovetail into PCC’s push to enact the National Competition Policy, a comprehensive framework to steer regulations and administrative procedures to promote free and fair market competition.

PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan will be delivering the opening remarks on re-thinking the current regulatory and institutional structure in light of the competition agenda. Headlining PCC’s line-up of experts and speaking on the central theme is William Kovacic, former chairman of the United States Federal Trade Commission, and Senator Sherwin Gatchalian who previously chaired the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs.

Distinguished competition and development experts, high-level government officials and lawmakers, as well as experts from professional societies and academic institutions will take part in a series of plenary and panel discussions during the two-day forum.

The 2020 Manila Forum on Competition in Developing Countries is the second in a series of biennial international fora launched by the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) in 2018.