Antitrust agency eyes whistle-blower plan

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is working on a leniency program that would encourage whistle-blowers to speak out against business cartels or other anticompetitive practices, top officials said on Wednesday.

The program is expected to expedite the pace of investigative cases, especially since it would include an incentive for less guilty informants to expose the bigger fish. Other competition jurisdictions, according to top officials, already have this kind of policy.

Commissioner Johannes Benjamin Bernabe said that this was already indicated in the Philippine Competition Act, but it still required guidelines.

“The implementation would need guidelines by which those who want to share information about a possible cartel or anticompetitive conduct can come to the commission and provide information. That should be something that would reward a whistle-blower,” he said.

The incentives in other jurisdictions, Bernabe said, included lower penalties or even an immunity from suit.

Commissioner Stella Alabastro Quimbo, however, said that PCC could not simply copy the leniency program being used by other countries. She said that PCC needed only to issue a set of rules on the leniency program.

“You cannot just simply adopt a leniency program designed from another jurisdiction. It has to be customized for us,” she explained, noting that the incentives would depend on how the antitrust body would design the program.

This comes as the PCC is currently in the middle of a number of full administrative investigations against certain industries such as that of cement and garlic.

It is also looking into possible anticompetitive behavior in the acquisition by the duopoly of Globe Inc. and PLDT Inc. of the telecommunications assets of San Miguel Corp.