Understanding the principles underlying the Philippine competition law

Abstract

After two decades of failed attempts to pass a competition bill in the Congress, the enactment of the Philippine Competition Act (Republic Act No. 10667) under the Aquino III administration in 2015 became a breakthrough legislation intended to promote free and fair competition in economic activities. Its objective is more or less standard and universal, which is to “safeguard, protect, and promote competition and the competitive process”. Its rationale is the same, which is to optimize overall welfare by promoting efficiency through good resource allocation and yielding right prices1 of goods and services, with highest feasible quality and variety of products. However, its passage is only the first step toward creating a working competition policy regime and a fairly competitive environment.