“We will be proactive and we will also wait for cases that will be filed. That is how the body should work,” Geronimo Sy, DOJ assistant secretary, said in an interview after speaking at the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) meeting on Friday at the New World Hotel in Makati.
When asked if Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has already identified particular cases that the Competition Authority will start working on, Sy said, “Yes.” He did not reveal them, however.
“The mantra is competition for consumer welfare. The country is a nation of consumers, so we should protect the consumers through competition,” Sy said.
Right now, he said, the department is setting up the office and identifying the people who will man it.
“We will operationalize it, and then take it from there. We will work closely with the sectoral regulators,” Sy said.
Although the Competition Authority would be composed of people from the DOJ, Sy said they would be collaborating with the agencies concerned, like the Department of Trade and Industry, if the case involved consumer welfare.
The Competition Authority was created by Executive Order 45, which was recently issued by President Aquino.
Its main functions are to investigate all cases involving violations of competition laws and prosecute violators to prevent, restrain and punish monopolization, cartels and combinations in restraint of trade; enforce competition policies and laws to protect consumers from abusive, fraudulent, or harmful corrupt business practices; supervise competition in markets by ensuring that prohibitions and requirements of competition laws are adhered to and, to this end, call on other government agencies and/or entities for submission of reports and provision for assistance;
Monitor and implement measures to promote transparency and accountability in markets; prepare, publish and disseminate studies and reports on competition to inform and guide the industry and consumers; and promote international cooperation and strengthen Philippine trade relations with other countries, economies and institutions in trade agreements.
Sy said the EO does not need accompanying implementing rules to be operational.
It will file cases against offenders, although the actual prosecution would still be done by the fiscals, he said.
