Senate gives green light to Mislatel

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate practically gave the go-signal to the Mislatel consortium to proceed as third player in the country’s telecommunications industry after the chamber approved the transfer of ownership of one of its partners, whose telco franchise is being questioned.

The Senate adopted Concurrent Resolution No. 23 approving the transfer, sale or assignment of the controlling interest of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Co. (Mislatel) to its new majority owners in 2015.

“The (new market player) is committed to providing Filipinos with unprecedented and unparalleled quality of telecommunications services, made possible only by the organizational unity, fiscal cooperation and technology transfer between and among Mislatel and its committed investors,” the resolution stated.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sens. Risa Hontiveros and Panfilo Lacson voted against the resolution.

In November, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission formally declared the Mislatel consortium as the country’s provisional third telco carrier after the two other bidders, Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) and the SEAR Telecom, were deemed to have failed to meet requirements set by the two agencies.

The resolution, which was adopted at the House of Representatives in December, was seen to cure the legal and constitutional questions on whether or not the consortium holds a valid franchise from Congress as one of the key requirements before it can be allowed to operate and compete against the duopoly of Globe and Smart.

Sen. Francis Escudero earlier said the question on whether or not Mislatel consortium has a valid franchise can be cured with congressional approval of the transfer of ownership, which implies the matter has been settled.

The resolution as endorsed by Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the public services committee, and adopted by the Senate did not make any reference to the consortium as third telco as its franchise could still be questioned before the courts.

“We took out anything that pertains to calling Mislatel a new major player or third telco. We’re treating it as a regular franchise because later on, someone might go to the court and say Congress recognized  Mislatel as the third telco,” Poe said in an interview on Monday.

She said she endorsed the resolution because of the public’s “desperation” to have a new player that promises better telco services, adding that Mislatel also risks losing more than P25 billion as performance bond should they fail to meet commitments in the first year of operation as required by the government.

The senator said the resolution does not in any way preclude Congress from altering, modifying, amending or repealing Mislatel’s franchise granted under Republic Act 8627 in 1998 should it fail to make good its commitments regarding coverage and internet speed.