Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. filed a motion for reconsideration before the National Telecommunications Commission to overturn a decision made by the agency’s selection committee to reject its bid for a new major telecom player.
“PT&T believes that it deserves the chance for their bid to be opened as it met all the requirements set by the NTC based on the original qualifications under Memorandum Circular 09-09-2018 or the terms of reference for the selection of new major player,” the company said.
Under the TOR dated Sept. 20, 2018 the term “national scale” should refer to the provisioning, delivery and operation of telecommunications services for a country, or particular regions thereof, as geographically designated by the telecommunications authority of that country.”
The selection committee, however issued Bid Bulletin No. 1 dated Oct. 11 and Bid Bulletin No. 5 dated Oct. 29 stating that the term “regional operations” should only apply in favor of foreign telcos.
“The implication of this interpretation is that a local company should have an operation in the entire Philippines for the last 10 years for it to be able to participate whereas a foreign company’s ‘regional operations’ in its own country is enough for them to qualify,” PT&T said.
“The interpretation is erroneous because there is no distinction between foreign and local company in the TOR insofar as the applicability of the term ‘regional operations’ is concerned. This is clearly discriminatory against Filipino telco companies,” it said.
PT&T said that the TOR issued by the NTC had the “force and effect of a law “ and it could not be amended by a “mere clarificatory bid bulletin issued by a selection committee. “
“The interpretation had the effect of amending the TOR or the Memorandum Circular which makes the said interpretation void,” the company said.
The selection committee disqualified PT&T for failure to submit a certification of technical capability from the NTC, which the company requested from the agency on Oct. 18, 2018 or more than two weeks prior to the submission and opening of bids on Nov. 7.
“If we have been given a certificate, we would have complied 100 percent. We have complied with all the requirements, including the P700 million participation security and the P10 billion paid-in capital,” PT&T president James Velasquez said.
“We believe that a thorough and transparent review of the selection documents submitted by the Udenna Consortium will be conducted by the NTC,” he said.
The NTC’s selection committee on Wednesday declared the consortium of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Co. Inc. as the provisional new major player with 456.80 points in commitments.
Mislatel, in a statement, refuted the claims that questioned the validity of its franchise.
“The Mislatel franchise is unquestionably valid and subsisting. The National Telecommunications Commission itself had issued a list of national telecommunications franchises that were eligible for the selection process for the new major player for the telecommunications industry,” the company led by Davao City-based businessman Dennis Uy said.
It said that during the selection process at the NTC, the selection committee confirmed the validity of Mislatel’s franchise.
”On the claims by Mr. Chavit Singson that TierOne has an existing and exclusive contract with Mislatel specifically for the selection process for the NMP for the telecommunications industry; the simple fact is that Mislatel has no contract with TierOne. What Mislatel had was a terminated contract with a company called DigiPhil that was meant for small projects, like VSAT. To be very clear, the contract with Digiphil was not intended for the purpose of submitting a bid with the NTC for the NMP for the telecommunications industry. A simple reading of the contract shows that it makes absolutely no reference to the third telco bid,” it said.
“TierOne submitted a failed bid with the NTC although they had a valid franchise [Sear]. Their bid was disqualified not because of any act on the part of Mislatel but rather merely because they were unable to secure the required participation security, which was required by the NTC’s terms of reference and the instructions to participants for the selection process,” Mislatel said.
“Unlike Tierone, Mislatel has complied with all of the NTC’s requirements and this is why it has been conferred provisional NMP status. The NTC selection process has been fair and transparent and for failure to even comply with a basic requirement, TierOne has been rightfully disqualified,” it said.