Philippine Association of Private Telecommunications Companies (PAPTELCO) raised concerns over the Konektadong Pinoy Bill, saying that small telecommunications companies will be displaced and called it anti-Filipino.
“The majority of the telecommunications companies in the Philippines are not big players. There are small ones like us that will be the first to be affected by this if it passes into law,” PAPTELCO President Atty. Normandy Baldovino Jr. stressed.
“We play an important role in the ICT ecosystem, providing connectivity where the big telcos are not able to go. Just allowing foreign telcos to enter the Philippines is anti-Filipino,” he added.
Baldovino furthered that legislators did not consider the negative impact of allowing any foreign telco to set-up in the Philippines.
The group raised alarm as the Senate passed the bill on the third and final reading the said bill after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. certified the bill as urgent.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, author of Senate Bill No. 2699, said that the Konektadong Pinoy bill aims to improve access to fast and affordable internet nationwide by removing the need for legislative franchises, promoting infrastructure sharing among telecom companies, and overseeing the allocation and use of radio spectrums.
PAPTELCO is an organization of independent telecommunications companies providing connectivity in farflung provinces.
Research firm Stratbase, earlier, said that the “bill in its current form may expose us to more pitfalls and risks.”
“The law seeks to make it easier for investments in telecommunications to pour into the country, and part of this is to address the roadblocks that hinder the flow of investments. But in our zeal to encourage investments, it would be prudent to maintain the regulatory oversight of the NTC. Only it will keep telcos in line and will serve as the people’s recourse,” Stratbase said.