| Work Detail |
The Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) has lashed out against allegations the bidding process for the new major telecom player (NMP) was rigged in favor of Mislatel, the consortium of Udenna Corp. and China Telecom.
“We simply looked at documents, not the personalities. It was an exercise on objectivity. The bidding was done in the most transparent and open manner. Despite this, the losers still impute that the process was rigged in favor Mislatel,” said Eliseo Rio, DICT acting sectary, in his Facebook post on Saturday.
The DICT on November 19 officially declared Mislatel as the NMP after it emerged as the lone qualified bidder.
Two other contenders, Sear Telecom and Philippine Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (PT&T), were disqualified for incomplete bids. Both firms’ motions for reconsideration were denied by the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) selection committee.
PT&T, which was disqualified due to lack of documents to certify that it operated for the past 10 years on a national scale, elevated the case to Supreme Court.
The company alleged the rules were changed at the last minute to favor both Mislatel and Sear with the intention to disqualify PT&T.
“This is far from the truth,” Rio said.
Section 2.3 of Memorandum Circular 09-09-2018 or the terms of reference of bidding states that a participant or one of its committed investors must have experience in the provisioning, delivery and operation of telecommunication services for the last 10 years on a national scale.
The MC defines “national scale” as “provisioning, delivery and operations of telecommunications services for a country, or particular regions thereof as geographically designated by the telecommunications authority of that country.”
Rio said in the Philippines, there is no such classification for “regional operation” for the provision of telecommunications services that is equivalent to “national scale” operations.
He added NMP must possess qualifications that allow it to effectively compete head-to-head with the dominant telecom players.
“This is the reason behind the MC’s strict technical capability requirement,” Rio said.
Rio said based on the review by the NTC regulations branch, PT&T did not provide, deliver and operate telecommunication services for the last 10 years continuously on a national scale.
Apart from internet/broadband services in Metro Manila from 2008 to present, all other NTC regional offices reported that PT&T did not operate for the past 10 years in their regions.
“PT&T also ceased its local exchange carrier operations in 2008. In PT&T’s 26 October 2018 position paper, it readily admitted that “this nationwide service was interrupted in 2009 when PT&T was compelled to undergo corporate rehabilitation,” Rio said.
Sear which was disqualified for non-submission of a P700-million participation security, even went on to blame NTC which it alleged did not respond to its inquiries pertaining to the letter of credit it intended to use as its participation security.
Rio noted Sear’s letter of inquiry was sent and received by the NTC on Nov. 7, 2018 at around 8:20 a.m., less than two hours from the 10 a.m. deadline.
He said Mislatel and PT&T did not have any problem complying with this requirement.
“The importance of the submission of a participation security has been clearly established and emphasized by the MC as it seeks to obtain sincere and truthful selection documents from participants,” Rio said
In addition, Sear also wants Mislatel to be disqualified because it claims that Mislatel had contractual obligations to one of the members of the Sear consortium.
Rio said the selection committee of the NTC and the NTC en banc have no jurisdiction to decide on the contractual disputes.
“Instructions to participants limits the powers and responsibilities of the NMP- Selection Committee to the examination, evaluation (for completeness and compliance) and ranking of the CLoS (committed level of service) of the selection documents of qualified participants,” Rio added.
Sear Telecom, in its MR presented the agreement between Mislatel and Digiphil which stated the former still had a contractual obligation with Digiphil when it signed up with Udenna, Chelsea Logistics and China Telecommunication Corp. and joined the NMP selection process.
Mislatel as the NMP was given 90 days to submit documents such as rollout plan for five years, registration from Securities and Exchange Commission and certification from Philippines Competition Commission among others.
The NTC will then turn over the mobile frequencies and the 15-year license to operate the telecom services nationwide.
The NMP is expected to start the commercial operation by the latter part of next year. |
