Outgoing DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio said the government has the infrastructure to ensure that the third telecoms player, the Mislatel Consortium, will be cyber security-compliant to prevent possible cybersecurity attacks.
The government recently named as the provisional new major telecoms player the Mislatel Consortium of businessman Dennis A. Uy’s Udenna Corp., Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., and the state-run China Telecoms.
In Tuesday’s resumption of the Senate public services committee explanatory hearing on the third telecoms player, Senator Grace Poe questioned National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on the reported cybersecurity attacks involving China Telecoms that affected several countries including the United States.
Esperon said they were validating the report. He said they still had 90 days to do that and the winning provisional telecoms player would have to undergo a background check by NICA.
Rio told the Senate panel led by Poe that the countries allegedly affected by cyber security breaches like America and Australia never had any Chinese product in their network.
He said 90 percent of the equipment of Globe were Chinese. Because of this, he said, the threat of Chinese products and Chinese people operating our telecommunications were already here.
Regarding Globe and Smart, Rio said, the government simply told the telecoms giants to come up with a third party cyber security audit to report to the government any breach.
During the 90-day period after the provisional NMP was awarded, Rio likewise said Mislatel had to come up with a roll-out plan that would assure the government that their network will not pose any national security.
“Globe and PLDT, in their disclosures to NTC, they admit that most of their equipment, in fact around 80 percent of their equipment are Huawei because they are very much cheaper than Ericsson, Nokia,” Rio said.
“So the Chinese equipment are already in our country. They are already in our telecoms network…In other words, if Mislatel will come up with their network, it will be the same equipment that Globe and Smart have.”
At the start of the hearing, Poe asked if the Filipinos could trust the third telecoms player.
Poe centered on the background and record of the winning bidder, Mislatel. She said China Telecom was a government corporation of China and one of the claimants in the contested West Philippine Sea.
“In the past, and these words had been reported, the company has been proven to have hijacked internet traffic,” she said in her opening statement.
Poe cited as example the reports that China Telecom “deliberately rerouted traffic directed to South America, Milan and Japan through different servers.”
“Are we allowing a substantial control of a portion of our internet traffic for the purpose of furthering their interests? In fact, do they even have the capability to reduce, control or mitigate these risks?” Poe said.
“Can we trust them to accord the same respect for the privacy of information and correspondence? Do we believe that they will not obtain valuable information to stir up insurrection or to prejudice the Filipino consumers?”
Poe also wanted to know if there were people who backed the government’s choice of Mislatel.
But Rio denied the claims that the consortium of Uy and China Telecom was favored by the government. He said the Mislatel consortium won because it was the only party that met the strict bidding requirements.
The other bidders, Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and Sear, which included former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson, failed to follow the rules cited in the Terms of Reference.
Meanwhile, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV asked Poe to again invite Uy because he wanted to ask him how his consortium won the bid.
Uy, a Davao-based businessman, is a known supporter of Duterte who is starting to build his empire under his administration.
Citing prior engagements, Uy failed to attend Tuesday’s hearing. Mislatel was represented by other officials such as spokesman Adel Tamano.
Senator Leila de Lima said the supposed “favor” given by the President to Uy constituted a “prima-facie case for investigation under the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act.