"Any disruptions within the department at this point may prove to be counter-productive."
"Any disruptions within the department at this point may prove to be counter-productive."
With the DICT declaration provisionally naming the Mindanao Islamic Telephone (MISLATEL)/Udenna/China Telecoms consortium as the third telecoms provider, there is now a need to complete the process before all kinds of entanglements set in.
Already, the two disqualified bidders, Tier One and PTT consortiums, have said they were going to file motions for reconsideration on their disqualification which left the field open to the provisional winner. More importantly, they are poised to submit a number of points questioning the provisional award granted to the MISLATEL/Udenna/China Telecoms consortium on factual and legal grounds. Of course, they have every right to do so. Which is why it is critical that Acting DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. who shepherded this latest bidding be allowed to finish the job. Any disruptions within the department at this point may prove to be counter-productive. Worse, it may sink any of our hopes to have a third player to challenge the current telecoms duopoly and improve the services in this critical sector altogether.
The acceptance of Senator Gringo Honasan of President Duterte’s offer for him to take over and lead the newly organized Department of Communications and Information technology at this point in time should not be a hindrance. After all, Secretary Rio, who was also instrumental in the then entry of SUN Communications as supposed-to-be the third player some years back, said he needed only a few weeks to decide on the motions for reconsideration and finalize the award. As Rio, a former general and head of the AFP’s Information and Communications Service, himself intimated, the finishing touches on this seminal undertaking is doable within the first week of December.
Said Rio: “I serve at the pleasure of the President. But my only hope is that I will be given a few more weeks to finalize the entry of a third telco player which we really worked hard for.”
That should not be hard for President Duterte and even Senator Honasan to understand and agree to. I am sure they themselves would not let this critical decision on the entry of a third telco further delayed and, worse, may even go to waste. No need to hurry on the change over. We are not suggesting that Senator Honasan’s entry would be disruptive. Far from it. What we are simply concerned about is the fact that his entry may be used by unscrupulous persons and organizations to mount a campaign to discredit the whole bidding process for the third telco by suing for time, for example, for Honasan to “learn the ropes.”
It is also very possible as well that the members of the provisionally declared third telco consortium may be unduly compromised as the final decision of those tasked to handle this project gets further dribbled. Or the new officials may simply ask for more time to study the matter. In any event, if the maneuvers to stall gets in place before the year ends, then we can truly have a much harder time after to get our third telco in place before the next presidential elections.
Now on Boracay and other island destinations.
We said it before and will say it again. It will take strong political will to clean up Boracay before it gets to a tipping point of wanton destruction. President Duterte provided that political will and equally important assigned hardworking and with proven integrity who shared his concern about the island turning into a ‘cesspool’ with passion. Two former AFP Chiefs of Staff-DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu, chair of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force, and DILG Acting Secretary Ed Ano—provided the steady and vigorous push to put order and dedication into the task. Then DoT Secretary Wanda Teo and her successor provided the caring necessary to get all stakeholders to come around and accept the need to finally put a stop to the unwarranted, unplanned and ultimately destructive development which had enveloped Boracay after the Supreme Court ruled that the island paradise except for those areas titled during the American period and thus with vested rights are owned by the State with a little caveat.
The State can then decide how to develop Boracay in a planned, constructive, inclusive and responsible manner. Which it did when then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation 1064 which paved the way for the allocation of usage of the state-owned lands. Thus, 60 percent were declared forest land and 40 percent alienable and disposable. Then speculators and buccaneers descended into the island turning it into the cesspool President Duterte described.
With universal praise for the recovery which the Duterte administration has done to this gem of an island, it is our hope that the wayward ways which got it into deserved condemnation will now stop and the standards for sustainable development which the Task Force has put in place enforced with passion. Then, with such a model, a platform for island development in place, we should all ensure that the other major island destinations, or for that matter, all other tourist destinations, get to practice the Boracay way. For that matter we should exercise and put in place those standards all over the place, not just the Boracays of this benighted land. It’s never too late to do so and for all of us to do our share.