Globe fears wiretapping due to metering device

MANILA, Philippines - Globe Telecom warned yesterday that a congressional proposal to install metering devices connecting certain government agencies and telecommunications companies (telcos) can expose the public to the possibility of criminal wire tappings.

It also said Congress has no power to fix the rates charged by telco companies and that a proposal to impose additional taxes in the guise of regulatory fees on telcos is illegal.

Globe has filed its opposition to a committee report initiated by House oversight committee chairman Rep. Danilo Suarez as well as proposals from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), setting the maximum text messaging rate at 50 centavos per text and imposing a five-centavo broad spectrum fee for all telco transactions, whether voice or non-voice.

The NTC proposal was pursuant to the House committee report which called for the charging of a five-centavo regulatory fee to digitally connect the NTC, Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and telcos through the installation of an electronic metering device.

According to the commission, the metering is aimed at capturing all revenue streams from the telco industry and generate correct revenues in line with the President’s balancing the budget agenda and the computerization of all public schools.

Globe warned that installing meters can be dangerous. “To ensure accuracy, authenticity and integrity and thus be credible for counting and taxing purposes, the transactions as captured must also capture the details of these transactions such as the date and time when say a text was made and the phone/cell numbers of the calling and the called parties. With all these metering devices outside of the telcos’ premises and in the hand of government functionaries, these private data involving the life and lifestyle of people virtually will become public such that the right to privacy of individuals are thus exposed to criminal violations and intrusions,” it said.

It suggested that the better alternative to metering is the monitoring of telco transactions via the strict monitoring of the manufacture and sale of SIM cards and phone/prepaid cards at the point of sale by the BIR.

Globe pointed out that the committee report is merely recommendary and does not create any legal, valid and enforceable obligation against telcos, even as it stressed that the five centavo broad spectrum fee is actually a tax which cannot be imposed without an enabling law.

Globe legal counsel Rodolfo Salalima also noted that the committee report sought to be enforced by the NTC and CITC on instructions of Rep. Suarez violates the principle of separation of powers.

“The regulatory departments, offices and agencies of government, acting either as an administrative or quasi-judicial bodies, take command only from the head of the executive department. Thus, the NTC takes its orders from, and is accountable solely to, the CICT and the Office of the President. Absent any law passed and outside of its law-making and inquiry-in-aid of legislation powers, Congress cannot impose its thinking or inclination and/or enforce the same against administrative or quasi-judicial bodies like the NTC and the CICT,” he said.

Globe also emphasized that in the absence of any implementing law, Suarez, the CICT and the NTC cannot impose the five centavo tax, “uncleverly disgused as a broad spectrum fee,” nor can they peg the text rate at 50 centavos.

It said that the committee report itself revealed that the imposition is a tax because the purpose is to generate revenues to balance the budget and finance the computerization of all public schools. – With a report from Rainier Allan