President Rodrigo Duterte must have seen the handwriting on the wall.
“Our efforts to usher in a new major player shall be rendered futile if we do not improve the odds of success in an industry that has long been dominated by a well-entrenched duopoly,” said the President in his State of the Nation Address before a joint session of Congress. The President’s prescience is proving to be right in light of unsettle legal issues in the terms of reference and implementing rules and regulations of the National Telecommunications Commission.
Foremost of these barriers is the unavailability of a reserved frequency band for the new and third telco player. What foreign investor would put money in an industry that is stymied by a pending case in the Supreme Court? It would be money down the drain if the high court rules in favor of Globe and Smart that the third frequency sold by industrialist Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp. to Globe and PLDT is legal and cannot be used by a third new player.
The chances of the new major player is now at risk because the Philippine Competitive Commission questioned the Department of Information and Communication Technology and the National Telecommunication Commission on the issue of the Draft Terms of Reference for the new major player. PCC wants a prohibition on mergers, combination of a related party with a dominant telco player, voluntary return of frequencies should the new major player become a related party with a dominant telco monitoring, performance evaluation through information-sharing in case of non-use and exemption from PCC review of competition.
Technically, therefore, the disputed frequency bands cannot be promised to the new major player, since if government loses this case what can be given to the new player will be limited. This will affect all the annexes of the Terms of Reference the bidder is required to submit.
The PCC cases refer to the buyout battle with the duopoly of Globe and Smart (PLDT) on the contention that the PCC can review the deal between SMC, PLDT and Globe of the Ayala Group of Companies.
Some of the issues here involve frequencies and terms of reference which may be too technical for the ordinary man on the street. Nonetheless, what this whole telecommunication rigmarole means is that the people’s prospect of having cheaper and more efficient calls and messages appears to be getting dimmer if the duopoly situation remains in place.
Rice price rise
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the first gold medal for the Philippines in the current Asian Games in Jakarta. But her triumph is overshadowed by the state of calamity declared in her province of Zamboanga because of the rice crisis.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the rice shortage and continued price hike in Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi Tawi could spread to other parts of Mindanao.
“For many years, these areas have relied on smuggled rice from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, slipped through Sabah,” said Piñol. But instead of talking about the problem, Piñol should tell the people what he and his department are doing to address the rice crisis. Pinol also warned about the dangers of rice importation because it dampens the incentives of local farmers to plant.
Over the weekend tons of legally imported rice are arriving from Vietnam with 150,000 sacks to be unloaded in Zamboanga which is suffering from the lack of supply of the basic food commodity.
What has Pinol done to spur rice production in almost three years of the Duterte administration? He and National Food Authority Administrator Jason Aquino should resign and not wait for the President to sack them. The NFA has not been able to control the price of rice in the market. In Zamboanga, the price of commercial rice has reached P70 per kilo—way beyond what the local people can afford. In Metro Manila, the price of commercial rice ranged from P43 to P54 per kilo depending on the variety like Dinorado and Sinondomeng.
Senators blame NFA Administrator Aquino for the panic-buying of rice and the failure to go after traders and distributors who hoard supply to jack up prices. The NFA, tasked with the country’s food security, is under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture.
In Subic, thousands of sacks of rice were rotting in the hold of a ship that brought the shipment from Vietnam. The shipment could not be unloaded early because of the incessant rain in the last three weeks.