ADB lends over $23M for capacity building at PCC

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending the Philippines $23.3 million to expand the Philippine Competition Commission’s (PCC) capacity to promote greater competition.

ADB announced the approval of the loan at a briefing in its Mandaluyong City office yesterday, noting that this is the first loan directed at the PCC.

“This loan is the first of its kind. It’s the first time that a loan is designed for capacity building purposes, and with a very special topic which is the competition law,” ADB Philippines Principal Country Specialist Cristina Lozano said at the briefing.

The loan takes effect in January, which the PCC will use to build its institutional capacity; strengthen the technical skills of its staff and those in agencies also concerned with competition like the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Justice and Office of the Solicitor General; and establish a center of excellence in competition law at the University of the Philippines.

Before the loan, the ADB was supporting the PCC through technical assistance which totaled “up to a million dollars” since 2016.

Ms. Lozano said the $23.3-million loan represents the “first phase” of the project, as the ADB may consider additional financing “once we can be more experienced in terms of implementation.”

The loan will have a 28-year term including a grace period of nine years.

“If it would be business as usual, meaning we won’t proactively develop the competencies, it would take us a long, long time before we can develop (competition) expertise… So we conceived this program, and it’s meant to hasten the development of competencies in competition law and policy,” PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan said, referring to the need for competition experts to improve market conditions in the Philippines.

He noted improved market conditions will help alleviate poverty as it will become “both attractive to investors and beneficial to consumers.”

Separately, Mr. Balisacan told reporters after the briefing that the PCC has been notified of the acquisition of Chevron Malampaya LLC’s stake in the Malampaya gas project by a unit of Udenna Corp.

“Yung sa Malampaya… nasa sufficiency determination stage. So nag-submit na sila, pero tinitignan pa kung kumpleto yung mga papers… Pag nakumpleto na, will they start the Phase 1 (The documents for Malampaya are in the sufficiency determination stage… we’re still checking if they are complete… Once it’s complete, we can start the Phase 1 of review),” he said.

PCC approval is among the regulatory requirements to complete the sale and purchase agreement between Chevron and the Dennis A. Uy-led company. Udenna announced last month its acquisition of the 45% stake of Chevron in the deepwater gas-to-power project. Other stakeholders of Malampaya are Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (45%) and Philippine National Oil Co. Exploration Corp. (10%).

Mr. Balisacan also said on Wednesday the PCC will announce its decision on San Miguel Corp.’s $2.15-billion acquisition of Holcim Philippines, Inc. “in a couple of days.”

“In the next couple of days… the MAO (Mergers and Acquisitions Office) will render its decision on the issue,” he said, referring to the anti-trust body’s review of the deal which started in August.

The PCC has said the acquisition by San Miguel may affect competition in markets for grey cement, clinker, ready-mix-concrete and aggregates in parts of the country. — Denise A. Valdez