Senate to vote on transfer of Mislatel ownership to consortium — Poe

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate is set to vote Wednesday on a bill that seeks to transfer the ownership of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc. (Mislatel) to its partners in the Mislatel Consortium, Senator Grace Poe said.

Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, presented on Monday House Resolution 23 that seeks the transfer of Mislatel’s majority shares to the consortium.

READ: Senate panel concurs with House decision to transfer Mislatel ownership to consortium

The consortium, which is owned by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp., Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., and state-owned China Telecom, was named the provisional third telecommunications player in the Philippines last November 7.

READ: Udenna-China Telecom named provisional 3rd telco 

“As chair, I sponsored it. It will still go through a vote. The reason why we did this is because this is the mandate of the Senate. I cannot decide on it as chairman [alone]. It has to be the collective wisdom of the body,” said Poe in an interview with ABS-CBN News channel Tuesday morning.

The House of Representatives earlier approved the proposed transfer of Mislatel to the said consortium.

READ: House panel OKs transfer of Mislatel control to Dennis Uy group after 2 meetings  

However, the senator said that her panel has taken out “anything that pertains to calling Mislatel a new major player or third telco” as its franchise may still be questioned in court.

READ: Drilon: Mislatel franchise considered revoked for violating conditions

“We’re treating it as a regular franchise because later on someone might go to the court and say Congress recognized Mislatel as the third telco,” she said.

Poe said that she has sponsored the bill due to the public’s “desperation” to have better telco services.

“Lahat tayo nananabik na magkaroon ng mabilis na internet (We are all excited to have a faster internet connection). It’s for national interest that I’m doing this,” said Poe.

The senator, meanwhile, reminded that once Mislatel fails to comply with its commitments in the first year of their operation, it will lose more than P25 billion in performance bond.

She also said that the resolution does not preclude Congress from altering, modifying, amending or repealing Mislatel’s franchise granted under Republic Act 8627 if the latter fails on its obligations regarding coverage and internet speed.

Poe earlier noted Mislatel’s promise to cover 37 percent of the population with minimum average internet speed at 27 megabits per second in the first year of operations. /ee