‘Agreement between AFP, China firm unconstitutional’

MANILA, Philippines — The agreement between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and a 40-percent China-owned telecommunications company (telco) is unconstitutional, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said yesterday.

Rodriguez said Section 3 of Article 2 of the 1987 Constitution provides that the AFP is the protector of the people and the state. 

“Its goal is to secure the sovereignty of the state and the integrity of the national territory. The deal allowing Dito Telecom to establish its facilities inside military camps will violate our national security and endanger our sovereignty. It is therefore unconstitutional and should not be allowed,” he said.

On Friday night, when the House of Representatives was considering the proposed P5.2-billion Department of Information and Communications (DICT) budget for 2020, Rodriguez got Secretary Gregorio Honasan to agree to his views.

However, there was no explicit statement from the DICT secretary that he would bar the construction of Dito Telecom towers and other facilities in military camps.

“You, of all people, being a former Army colonel, understand the danger to our national security of having communications assets partly owned by foreigners, in this case, the Chinese, inside AFP camps,” Rodriguez told Honasan, who nodded.

Since agency officials are now allowed to participate directly in House plenary proceedings, Honasan provided his answers through Makati Rep. Luis Campos Jr., who defended the DICT budget as an appropriations committee vice chairman.

Like Honasan, Campos conceded the validity of Rodriguez’s arguments.

“There will not be a breach of security as long as the DICT and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) are watching over this (deal),” the Makati lawmaker assured his colleague from Cagayan de Oro City.

Aside from Rodriguez, some senators have also expressed concern over the implications of the AFP-Dito deal.

Dito Telecommunity is the third government-accredited telco that would compete with industry giants Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.-Smart Communications and Globe Telecom to provide the public with faster mobile phone and internet services.

Earlier, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said he received a text message from Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that he was not aware of the AFP-Dito agreement signed by AFP chief Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr.

Lorenzana later said he was out of the country on official business.

He said he inquired from Madrigal and was told that the agreement was on its way to his office, and that he would scrutinize it before taking any action.

Lorenzana’s statement did not sit well with Sen. Ralph Recto, who said, “If this deal can fly stealthily under the nose of the man responsible for our nation’s defense, then it raises anew the vulnerability of our borders from intruders.”

Recto said the possible security implications attached to the deal should have been cleared first at the highest level.