Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 5) — The antitrust body would be taking a closer look at mergers within the power sector.
The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) signed a new agreement with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Monday, which allows the competition body to conduct joint fact-finding inquiries about mergers or acquisitions within the power industry. This comes a month after a similar deal was struck with the Department of Energy (DOE) for a closer watch on power deals.
PCC Chairperson Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement that the agreement Monday that grants information sharing as well as coordination of enforcement actions for possible violations of competition rules.
PCC’s deal with the ERC also lets the antitrust body to tap attached agencies like the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, and other generation companies for relevant data.
The three-way deal among energy regulators meant they can coordinate investigations into alleged collusions or abuses of dominance.
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“With the ERC onboard with PCC and DOE, the agencies expect to make headway in probing allegations of collusion or abuse of dominance amid a series of shutdowns among power plants that may have contributed to increase in electricity prices earlier this year,” the competition regulator said.
The PCC previously launched an investigation to check if the series of power outages that hit Luzon earlier this year were planned, so that electricity suppliers can raise rates.
The PCC is mandated to review big-ticket mergers involving companies operating in the Philippines to ensure that these deals do not unnecessarily jack up consumer prices or result to a monopoly in the local market. As a rule, all transactions worth more than ₱2 billion must secure PCC approval before its execution.
