The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and the Supreme Court yesterday launched the rules on inspection and dawn raids versus cartels and other anti-competitive agreement cases to hasten their resolution.
Arsenio Balisacan, PCC chairman, in a statement said the Rule on Administrative Search and Inspection under the Philippine Competition Act arks the effectivity of the rules that ensure balance of enforcement and due process in the PCC’s enforcement action against economic saboteurs and cartelists, and protection of rights of entities.
Balisacan said the conduct of dawn raids is expected to significantly bolster PCC’s case-building and increase the number of prosecutions.
He added competition authorities around the world have utilized unannounced inspections or dawn raids are effective tools in obtaining evidence in cartel and other anti-competitive cases, particularly with great risk of tampering or destroying evidence.
The rules took effect on Nov. 16, 2019 and govern the application, issuance and enforcement of an inspection order for investigations of alleged violations of the PCA and its implementing rules and regulations.
All applications for an inspection order shall be acted upon within 24 hours from its filing.
Information subject to inspection include books, tax records, documents, papers, accounts, letters, photographs, as well as databases, means of accessing information contained in such databases, and electronically stored information.
