Institutional Design of Philippine Competition Law

Abstract

After twenty-five years in the legislative mill, the Philippine Competition Act (PCA) was enacted into law in 2015, which established a national competition authority. But whether this law will truly change the landscape of competition in the market is an ambitious antitrust vision that requires years of competition law enforcement. On top of that, it demands for consideration and balancing of several competing norms and values within a well-designed competition law institution. This study looks into the institutional design of the PCA vis-à-vis the presence of the “structure and design” of the normative criteria or values, which are considered the institutional prerequisites for an effective competition law enforcement regime. The institutional evaluation of the design and structure of the Philippine competition enforcement regime suggests that the normative criteria of designing competition law institution are formally embedded in the provisions of the PCA. Independence, accountability, transparency, and confidentiality are expressly entrenched in the language of the law. Relevant expertise in the discipline of competition law is considered in the selection of the personnel of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC). The normative criteria or values appear to be formally implanted in the PCC’s institutional design, an advantage of legal transplant that a new competition authority enjoys during its conceptualization and designing. Of course, the overall institutional design of the PCC is not without shortcomings, which require congressional amendments.