Eliseo Rio, the former Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) undersecretary, has denied a Manila Standard report that said he has divested shares from Dennis Uy-owned firm Dito Telecommunity Corp., which is poised as the country’s third telco.
In a letter to the Standard, Rio said he took “serious issue” with the article entitled “Fund withdrawals hit Dennis Uy’s telco firm," which was posted on the Standard website on July 16 (https://manilastandard.net/mobile/article/328779).
The article mentions that Rio had reportedly divested 1.2 million shares, supposedly worth P44.4 million, from Dito.
“I have never gotten any shares much less downloaded any from DITO.
The source of your report is a blog that is publishing fake news,” Rio told the Standard.
“This article put me in a bad light as it implies that since the selection process of the third telco was done when I was acting secretary of DICT, I had some financial gain from the one selected which is DITO,” he said.
“This is totally false, and I demand that the necessary correction be made as what would be expected from a prestigious newspaper,” Rio added.