PCC to do market studies on 9 priority sectors

MANILA -- The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) would conduct market studies on nine priority sectors this year to identify competition concerns, PCC Commissioner Stella Luz Quimbo said Wednesday.

In a media briefing, Quimbo identified the sectors as rice, meat and poultry, pharmaceuticals, land transportation, air transportation, agricultural credit, digital commerce, retail, and telecommunications.

“We have priority sectors. Technically those sectors have (a) big impact on consumers,” she said.
She said the market studies aimed to provide the Commission an objective assessment of these nine priority sectors.

“The Commission will identify competition concerns and would prioritize those concerns and we (will) figure out how we proceed with those concerns. We can open a case or simply do advocacy,” Quimbo added.

The commissioner said that almost all the market studies would be bid out, while some would be undertaken by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

Aside from these market studies, the PCC will also do market scoping on certain manufacturing sectors.

Meanwhile, PCC Commissioner Johannes Benjamin Bernabe clarified that the market study on the telecommunications sector was a separate exercise from the antitrust body’s review on the PHP70-billion transaction of PLDT Inc., Globe Telecom, and San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

“The market study would look into (the) entire telco industry. So you will be looking at voice telephony, will be looking at fixed broadband, internet services, mobile internet service provision. So the whole gamut of the services provided in the telecom industry,” Bernabe said.

“Obviously, in that context, you cannot avoid looking at critical aspects of telecom services,” he noted.

Moreover, Quimbo said the result of the market study might lead to opening a case or undertake advocacy towards sector regulators.

“For example, a competition concern on the market can be solved by the issuance of policy then we can approach government agency,” she added. (PNA)