The Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives on Tuesday questioned the swift passage of the legislative franchise of the country’s third telecommunications player owned by Davao City-based businessman Dennis Uy, a known close friend of President Duterte.
The group denounced what it described as a “double standard” in the passage of the 25-year franchise application of Dito Telecommunity Corp. (formerly Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc. or Mislatel) as compared with the rejection of the franchise renewal of broadcast giant ABS-CBN Corp.
“The franchise of Mislatel or Dito Telecommunity took a smooth sailing process even if its operations will have huge implications in the country, while ABS-CBN was grilled on so many issues that are even far from franchise discussions,” Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas, one of the group’s members, said.
Brosas said the franchise application of Dito was passed in Congress without subjecting it to rigorous scrutiny just as it did in ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal application – when both cases raised controversial issues like foreign ownership.
“There was never a clamor from this chamber to review and re-assess the technical capacity of Dito Telecommunity, or to investigate its compliance to tax laws. Is this how Congress treats allies of the President applying for franchise?” Brosas said.
She added issues involving foreign ownership and even contractualization of workers were also raised against Dito Telecomm, just like the ones raised against ABS-CBN and yet its application for franchise faced a smooth sailing.
“Let us not forget that China Telecom, which is owned by the Chinese government, has 40 percent share in Dito. In effect, we are allowing a China-backed telecom player to smoothly do business in our country—despite the various national security implications that we in Gabriela Women’s Party raised in several venues,” Brosas said.
“Some of our colleagues were angry with ABS-CBN because of the supposed foreign citizenship of Mr. Gabby Lopez, but they don’t care if China enters our telecom industry,” she added.