The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) on Thursday welcomed the passage of the proposed measure amending the 85-year-old Public Service Act (PSA) and pledged to monitor the impact of 100% foreign ownership in several industries on competition in the country.
“In terms of the safeguards of how we will protect competition under the liberalization of entry of foreign service suppliers, safeguards are already provided for in the Philippine Competition Act,” PCC Commissioner Johannes Bernabe said at a virtual press briefing.
On Wednesday night, the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed measure modernizing the PSA.
The measure seeks to clear ambiguity surrounding the terms “public utility” and “public service,” identifying public utilities as the following: the distribution and transmission of electricity; petroleum and petroleum products pipeline transmission systems; water pipeline distribution systems and wastewater pipeline systems, including sewerage pipeline systems; seaports; and public utility vehicles.
According to the proposed law, any industry not included among these will remain public services and will be liberalized or open to 100% foreign ownership.
PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan said the entry of foreign players in restrictive markets “is a boon for consumers, producers, and boon for our long-term growth.”
“I think the ratification of this bill last night by both chambers of Congress is a game changer. We’ve been waiting for these amendments for so long because we recognize very very early on that the pitiful inflow of direct foreign investments in the country is limited by very restrictive provisions of our laws,” he said.
Bernabe said the PCC, acting on its mandate under the Philippine Competition Act, will review acquisitions, if there are any, by foreigners if “it would tend to increase market concentration.”
“We will look at this in the context of, if those acquisitions were by foreign service suppliers which already have equity in other related businesses,” Bernabe said.
“In the future, if the foreign investor manages to acquire a dominant position in the market, there are certain constraints imposed by our law in a way that [the] conduct [of the review] has to be undertaken so that it does not constitute abuse of one’s market power,” he added.
PCC Commissioner Emerson Aquende said the antitrust watchdog will ensure that the “expected benefits of liberalization will trickle down to the intended beneficiaries at the end of the day, that is the consumers.”
“We would like to see that the benefits are not confined to the upper echelons of society and businesses. What we would like to see is [the] liberalization would spur competition up to the level of MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises),” Aquende said. — VBL, GMA News
PCC welcomes passage of amended PSA, says safeguards already in place
Source: News Panda Philippines
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