DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. (Photo from his Facebook account)
MANILA, Philippines — The franchise of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. (Mislatel) was not revoked, contrary to the claim of Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, according to acting Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Last Thursday, Drilon revealed in a Senate hearing that the selection process for third telco done by DICT was faulty as Mislatel had no valid franchise as required by the Terms of Reference (MC-09-09-2018) since its franchise is “ipso facto” revoked.
“That is far from the truth,” Rio said in a Facebook post on Saturday. “NTC took much effort in doing its due diligence to make sure that all requirements of the MC are complied with.”
According to Drilon, Mislatel’s incumbent president and chief operating executive (CEO), Nicanor Escalante, failed to seek the approval of Congress when his group purchased the majority of the telco firm’s shares in 2015.
Drilon then said Escalante’s group should have sought for congressional approval of the transfer of its controlling interest in Mislatel because Congress must look into the background of the company and its stockholders “to determine that the privilege granted by the state can be exercised correctly and faithfully.”
READ: Drilon: Mislatel franchise considered revoked for violating conditions
However, Rio said that, during the prequalification period, Congress told the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that the telco franchise was never revoked.
“First, NTC, during the pre-qualification period, wrote Congress if the franchise of Mislatel is still valid, and got the answer that on record, their franchise has never been revoked,” Rio said.
“In other words, since there is no declaration of revocation by competent authorities, NTC has no right to consider the francise as revoked as the presumption of regularity and the validity of the franchise must be respected,” he added.
Rio also cited that Supreme Court (SC) already ruled that, since the telco franchise was a “property right” there must be “due process for it to be revoked.”
Rio admitted, however, that many telcos might have “violated” their franchises, but without any due process they could not be revoked.
“The truth is that so many telcos may have in one way or another ‘violated’ their franchises, but without due process, none of these franchises have been actually revoked,” Rio said.
He said, that if all franchises could be revoked without due process, the whole telecom industry would “fold up.”
“If we now consider them revoked without due process as what Senator Drilon would want to do with Mislatel, contrary to the Supreme Court decision that revocation of franchises can only be done through a quo warranto action, then our whole Telecom industry will fold up, bringing us back to the Dark Ages,” he said. /atm