Poe urges SC to ‘move faster’ in deciding on appeal of other telco companies

Senator Grace Poe on Monday urged the Supreme Court to “move faster” in deciding on the appeal of two telco companies who got disqualified in the selection of the third major telco player in the country.

Poe cited the Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corporation’s (PT&T) bid to overturn its disqualification from the third telco race last Nov. 7.

PT&T claimed that that the terms of reference was changed in the middle of the selection process.

“We would like to ask or request that the proceedings move faster, maybe the SC could shed light into this sooner so that we don’t lose valuable time,” Poe said in an interview over the ABS CBN News Channel.

PT&T filed a Petition for Certiorari before the SC seeking to “nullify its disqualification from the selection process.” PT&T said that the selection committee disqualified it with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.

READ: PT&T brings 3rd telco fight to Supreme Court

Poe said she believes that there should be a bidding process if the SC rules in favor of the PT&T’s appeal.

“I think they’ll have to restart the bidding process… Because in the eyes of the Supreme Court, they should not have been disqualified,” the senator said.

Poe, however, said that the selection committee should still discern what the PT&T could offer, should there be another bidding process.

“We have to open the second envelope, what can they offer? That’s another category, which is not only legal but also technical,” she said.

“We haven’t really seen the proposal of PT&T technically, precisely because from the qualifying period, they already got disqualified,” Poe added. /muf