By Aerol John Pateña/PNA
MANILA — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will leave it up to Congress to decide on the validity of the franchise of new major telco player Mislatel Consortium.
DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said a legislative act can provide remedies to address the supposed deficiencies in the franchise of the third telco player.
“The Senate saw that it can be cured (Mislatel franchise) just like the Lower House they were able to do some remedy. It can be cured through an act of Congress because it was the one that granted the franchise,” Rio said in a radio interview on Monday.
Various lawmakers have raised concerns that Mislatel has failed to comply with the conditions of its franchise, as it has not operated within a year after this was granted and shares were transferred to its current owners without congressional approval.
The House committee on legislative franchises has approved last December a resolution, which authorizes the transfer of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc. (Mislatel) to a consortium consisting of Udenna Corporation owned by businessman Dennis Uy and Chinese state-owned firm, China Telecom, in order to operate as the new major telco player in the country.
Meanwhile, Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said the Senate is considering a measure that will ‘cure the defects’ surrounding the validity of Mislatel’s franchise.
Mislatel is currently undergoing a 90-day post-qualification phase, which started from the awarding of the third telco slot by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) last November and will last until February 17.
The consortium needs to submit documents including congressional approval of its franchise; registration from the Securities and Exchange Commission; approval of the Philippine Competition Commission of its bidding agreement implementation; posting of the performance security bond and its rollout plan for the processing of its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity by the NTC.
