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Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Shortchanged

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A senator has filed a bill seeking to prohibit the expiration of prepaid and electronic load.

Senator Ralph Recto, the author of Senate Bill 848, wants consumers to be able to use up all the load they put into their mobile accounts and without having to be mindful of a period beyond which their money goes to waste.

The bill mandates companies to refund subscribers their lost credit. Violators will face the possibility of fine, imprisonment, and a revocation of license. 

The measure is not new. Similar bills in previous congresses have been filed but have not gone beyond first reading. We suppose big business has its way of making politicians toe the line.

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 The concern has plagued the millions of mobile phone subscribers in the Philippines, an estimated 80 percent of which use prepaid credit for their accounts, for so long. 

However much they complain, however, the status quo has held sway. There is not much choice between the two giant telecommunication companies that provide the service. Leave one, and the other may just be as bad—even worse. Thus, it may be smarter to stay put, and suffer. 

The same telco giants have been responsible for the dismal quality of internet service in the country amid relatively high costs. Again, leaving one brand for the other is not an attractive option for consumers. Providers give equally poor quality, anyway.

We get by, anyway, as we often do—don’t they say Filipinos are a resilient lot? 

It will be interesting to see how far this newest bill progresses. After all, did not the President himself express derision of the oligarchy—the very few members of the elite who determine the condition and course of the rest of us? 

Lowly prepaid consumers do not complain all that much because they need the service so much and see no alternatives. But it does not mean we must go easy on demanding basic respect from the telco providers even as we know it’s domination and profits they are truly after. 

Perhaps the government can stand up for its people, for once, by ensuring big business at the very least plays fair.  

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