The Court of Appeals in Manila. | BG PHOTO: COURT OF APPEALS WEBSITE
MANILA, Philippines — Government lawyers have reiterated its appeal for the Court of Appeals (CA) to set aside its previous ruling directing the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to automatically approve the application of News and Entertainment Network Corp. (Newsnet) to operate a local multi-point distribution system (LMDS).
In its urgent manifestation filed Monday, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), representing the NTC, called on the CA to take judicial notice of the Office of the President’s decision dismissing the appeal of Newsnet to reverse the ruling of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA),
ARTA nullified its previous ruling allowing Newsnet to install, operate, and maintain an LMDS to deliver interactive pay television and multimedia services in Southern Luzon, Northern Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The OSG said the decision of the Office of the President is consistent with that of ARTA and the Department of Justice (DOJ), which are also of the opinion that applications involving radio frequency assignments are not within the coverage of The Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 (Republic Act No, 11032) but is a sole function of the government regulatory body, which is the NTC in this case.
“Humbly, with three government agencies – ARTA, the DOJ, and the Office of the President – echoing the same position that: first, ARTA had no jurisdiction over the assignment of frequencies; second, recall of ARTA’s Order dated 12 February 2020 was only proper having been rendered without jurisdiction; and, third, the expiration of petitioner’s franchise rendered its Application moot, respondents reiterate its plea for the Honorable Court to reconsider and set aside its Decision dated 20 July 2022,” the OSG said in the manifestation signed by Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra.
“From these events, respondents most respectfully submit re-plead, yet again, that a writ of mandamus compelling it to comply with the non-existent ARTA’s Order dated 12 February 2020 cannot be issued since ARTA or any other government agency for that matter and even the Honorable Court, cannot arrogate upon themselves this duty to regulate the frequencies — a scarce resource. ARTA cannot supplant NTC’s discretion on determining whether an entity should be granted frequencies and consequently a CPC or PA by ordering an application to be ‘deemed approved’,” the OSG added.