The public wants no more ‘telcoserye’

RECENTLY, a phenomenal show emerged, scoring an all-time high rating elbow-toelbow with ABS-CBN’s latenight teleserye Halik. I am referring to our first-ever telcoserye, a spontaneously concocted drama that emerged from President Duterte’s search for a new major player (NMP) for the Philippine’s telecommunications industry.

Predicted to be far from over, the telcoserye has been extended with more dramatic episodes as the seventh of November turned out to be the climax rather than the resolution of the story. With more characters coming into picture and more people providing their “expert” opinion, the public, being the truly interested party, is forced to keep watch even if the direction of the story is becoming vaguer by the day.

The China Telecom’s inclusion alone in the Mislatel consortium led to the convenient allegation that it was the realization of Duterte’s earlier pronouncement offering to the People’s Republic of China the privilege to operate the 3rd telecoms carrier in the country.

China Telecom was reported to be partnership with Udenna Corporation and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corporation, owned by Davao business tycoon Dennis Uy, reported to be one of Duterte’s election fund contributors.

With or without a categorical denial from presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo, there is nothing difficult with concluding that such skeptical allusion is nothing more than mere gossips. Like all other gossip, it has no weight nor will it bring anything beneficial to our lives.

Let us not rob the Mislatel consortium of the credit it deserves, having met all the qualifications and followed all the rules during the selection process. We watched them place their bid fair and square, and complied with all the requirements.

Given the time afforded to the participants to prepare for the big day, other bidders still disappointingly failed to do so, as if they were attending a laboratory activity with incomplete materials. Too bad, unlike in the classroom setting, the strict committee would not allow them to ask their bid competitor to supply them with 1700 million security or technical capacity certificate during the checking of papers.

Stick with DICT Assistant Secretary Eliseo Rio’s statement in his recent ANC interview, “We did not look at personalities. We did not look at whoever is close to the President. We looked at documents.” Forget then the fallacies and allegations. What we saw should be what we believe.

Came November 7, we were all excited to know who would emerge as our NMP. It was also, our first time – and the first in the Philippine history – to witness a bidding for a big-ticket item. This level of transparency should be commended as a major milestone of the government and agencies should follow suit.

We thought the drama would end with NOW Telecom’s TRO prayer being dismissed by the court, lack of participation in the bidding, and subsequent exit with a message consistent with the true spirit of Christmas season.

High hopes for a truly entertaining bidding, much like in a beauty pageant or a basketball game, became shattered after two of the three participants – PT&T and Sear Telecom – were disqualified due to incomplete requirements.

If you were disappointed, to whom should you be disappointed? Were you disappointed with the Mislatel consortium because they were diligent enough to ensure that the requirements placed in those fancy luggage were complete? I was not. I was disappointed with PT&T and Sear Telecom for coming to the selection day with those fancy corporate suits but with incomplete requirements.

I felt bad for the NMP selection committee having to work over the weekend, missing their family time just to beat the three-day calendar only to decide over issues that are outside its jurisdiction. It was hard to believe that Sear’s lawyers did not know that their contractual issue alleged between Mislatel and Digiphil should have been brought to regular courts instead. More so, we, the public, were certainly not interested in their private undertakings.

With Sear and PT&T’s mere incapacity to comply with the basic requirements to become our third telco, the public wants to know what kind of service can we expect from them?

I move that this quality and manner of bidding for multimillion projects be continued with improvements. Senate President Vicente Sotto III proposed that bidders, through a waiver, should be prohibited from protesting the decision of a government agency should they lose the bidding. He based his proposal on observations that the disputes, such as in the third telco bidding, always happen in many bidding processes, to the incon- venience of the government.

If their next motion will state their true intention to become teleserye producers, maybe we can reconsider. They seem to have been enjoying the plot twists and limelight after all.

Finally, it is time to set our priorities straight once and for all. Why do we need and want an NMP?

The bottom-line is that an entry of a new player in our telecommunications industry will naturally lead to increased competition – more choices for consumers, improvement in the quality of services, and lower subscription costs. All other economic benefits will follow.

We want no more drama. We want to see Mislatel, our NMP, in action.