Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan is an economist with extensive high-level policymaking practice and a well-recognized scholar in Asia on economic development, inequality, poverty, and political economy of policy reforms.

A member of the University of the Philippines School of Economics faculty for over three decades, Professor Balisacan is serving as the first Chairperson of the Philippine Competition Commission. He was Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and concurrent Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority in 2012-2016.

Previous to his Cabinet appointment, he was Dean of the UP School of Economics, Director-Chief Executive of the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, and Undersecretary for Policy and Planning of the Department of Agriculture. Before joining the UP faculty in 1987, he was Research Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and Economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

He is a lifetime Member-Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST Philippines), the country’s top peer-elected body serving as principal adviser to the nation on science, technology, and innovation for national development.

Chairman Balisacan pursued his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Hawaii, MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and B.S. in Agriculture (magna cum laude) from the Mariano Marcos State University.

Michael Macapagal is a partner in Quisumbing Torres' Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He heads the Restructuring & Insolvency Focus Group and is a member of the Energy, Mining & Infrastructure Industry Group, the Compliance and Competition focus groups. He has 12 years of legal practice involving arbitration, civil and criminal litigation, competition, construction, compliance, labor law, intellectual property law, public private partnerships and project finance.  He is a Member and the Deputy Secretary General for Case Administration of the Philippine International Center for Conflict Resolution of which is also an accredited arbitrator.
 
Michael is also a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines College of Law and the Manuel L. Quezon University, where he teaches criminal and civil law courses. He is also a regular lecturer on international arbitration and competition law at the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) sessions hosted by the University of the Philippines Law Center. He has been recently cited as a Next Generation Partner in Dispute Resolution as well as Real Estate and Construction by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for 2020-2021.

HOST & MODERATOR

Maria Christina Macasaet-Acaban is a partner, and the head of the Corporate & Commercial/M&A Practice Group, the Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry Group, and the Competition Focus Group, in Quisumbing Torres, a member firm of Baker & McKenzie International. She is a member of Baker & McKenzie's Asia Pacific Healthcare & Life Sciences Steering Committee, the Asia Pacific Competition Steering Committee and the Asia Pacific M&A Steering Committee. She has 22 years of experience advising and representing multinational corporations on domestic and cross-border transactions.
 
She is cited as a Leading Individual in Corporate and M&A by the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2019-2021, Distinguished practitioner for Corporate and M&A by Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2021, and Highly Regarded Lawyer in Corporate and M&A by the IFLR1000-Financial and Corporate guide for 2019-2020. She was also a Finalist in the Woman Lawyer of the Year 2018 award by the Asia Legal Business Philippines. Christina was recognized as a 2020 Who’s Who Legal: Competition Future Leader for Competition.
 
Christina's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, foreign investments and structuring, antitrust and competition, and corporate reorganizations and restructuring for a range of industries including pharmaceuticals and healthcare, technology, media and telecommunications, real estate, consumer goods and retail, and manufacturing.