PCC reviews face bottlenecks in latest law against red tape

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) could face problems in reviewing complex business deals after the latest law on ease of doing business cut its probe period short, a top official said.

In a chance interview with the Inquirer, PCC Chair Arsenio Balisacan said they did not expect to be covered by Republic Act 11032. Known as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act, the law is meant to address excessive bureaucracy that limits productivity.

While this would accelerate frontline transactions such as business registrations, this could also compromise other government processes.

The law qualifies government transactions based on the complexity of the task. A highly technical process, which would most likely cover PCC’s reviews, will take 20 days, with the possibility of an extension by another 20 days.

At stake here is how the country’s antitrust body reviews mergers and acquisitions deemed large enough to affect competition. These reviews enter phases, depending on how complicated these deals are.

The first phase usually covers 30 days, which meant that PCC would still be able to comply with the law’s maximum 40 days requirement, Balisacan said.

He said if further information was required, the review would enter the second phase, possibly for 60 days.

“Our problem is with the really complicated [business deals] such that we’ll have to proceed to phase two. We have a number of those cases,” he said.

An example of this was the planned acquisition of Goldilocks Bakeshop Inc. by SM Retail Inc., which eventually did not push through. The deal passed phase two after certain market conditions were agreed upon.

PCC’s concerns echo those raised by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, which will be forced to finish reviews of intellectual property filings earlier than normal, which usually takes six months at least.

“It’s the same situation. We also did not expect [it],” he said.

He said they had already consulted appropriate authorities, including the Department of Justice, which provides legal opinions in matters of mergers and acquisitions.