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TECHNICAL working group is fine-tuning key provisions of
an antitrust bill filed by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile that
is likely to target suspected price-fixing activities by
major players in the oil industry, the power sector, as
well as so-called monopolies.
“I have asked a technical working group
to review the important provisions of the antitrust
bill,” Enrile earlier told the BusinessMirror, referring
to Senate Bill 123, which is expected to be submitted
for plenary consideration when Congress resumes regular
sessions next month.
Enrile introduced the bill amid growing
public consternation over the virtually uniform
pump-level prices of gasoline in filling stations owned
by major oil players, despite a deregulated industry and
the skyrocketing cost of monthly electric bills charged
to consumers in the Meralco franchise area.
Senate Bill 123, among others,
specifically prohibits “monopolies, [or] attempts to
monopolize an industry or line of commerce, manipulation
of prices of commodities, asset acquisition and
interlocking memberships in the board of directors of
competing corporate bodies and price discrimination
among customers” and provides stiff penalties for
violations once it is enacted into law.
Section 3 of Enrile’s antitrust bill
provides that “every agreement or contract, combination
in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy,
expressed or implied, in restraint of trade or commerce
inside the country or with foreign nations or foreign
territories, is hereby declared illegal and, therefore,
it shall be unlawful for any person to enter in, or to
make, or to be a party to any such contract or
combination or conspiracy, and any such person shall be
deemed guilty of an offense.”
But it also provided that “nothing
herein contained shall render illegal any agreement or
contract prescribing minimum prices for the resale of a
commodity which bears, or the label or container of
which bears, the trademark, brand or name of the
producer or distributor of such commodity and which is
in free competition with commodities of the same general
class produced or distributed by others.”
Section 4 of the bill on monopoly states
that “it shall be unlawful for any person to monopolize,
or attempt to monopolize, or to combine or conspire,
expressly or impliedly, with any other person or
persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce
within the country, or with any foreign country or
territory, and any such person shall be guilty of an
offense.”
It, however, adds that “nothing in this
Act shall render unlawful the right of a patent holder
or copyright holder to enjoy the benefit of his or its
patent or copyright duly registered in the Philippines
or in any foreign country with which the Philippines is
a cosignatory to any treaty or convention that protects
right to an invention patent or to a copyright, as the
case may be.”
Enrile’s bill further provides that any
violation of Sections 3 and 4 of the proposed antitrust
law shall be punished, “for each and every such
violation,” by a fine not exceeding P10 million if it is
a corporation or association, or P1 million if the
violator is a natural person, or by imprisonment not
exceeding five years, or both fine and imprisonment in
the discretion of the court. B. Fernandez |
