Only Chinese telco welcome – Palace

THE Duterte administration will not open its doors to foreign telecommunications companies unless they are from China.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. made the statement even after criticism that President Rodrigo Duterte was favoring Beijing.

“It was a political decision of the President to offer it to a Chinese company,” Roque told reporters.

Lawmakers have raised security concerns over the entry of a Chinese telco amid a dispute between Manila and Beijing over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Roque however said a new telco player was a matter of urgency amid public complaints of poor service from the existing players.

“It was brought up in bilateral negotiations between the Philippines and China. And the eventual player that was chosen by China, China Telecom, without a doubt is one of the biggest

in the world. It was intended to strengthen our bilateral ties with China, coupled with the fact that given the huge telecoms market in China, Chinese companies ought to have already technical know-how in providing competent and reliable telecom services,” Roque said.

“Right now, let’s see [if there will be other foreign players] because there’s a third operator that was invited to come in...that’s already fraught with challenges,” he added.

Roque cited the dispute over the joint purchase by the telco duopoly, Globe Telecom and PLDT, of the frequencies held by San Miguel Corp., which dropped its bid to enter the telco industry last year.

China Telecom’s prospective partner, PT& T, announced its comeback in August this year, promising to provide high-speed broadband connectivity in the country with a new set of leaders on its board.

The company told the local bourse in August that the investment company Menlo Capital Corp. acquired a 70 percent stake in PT&T from its previous owner Republic Telecommunications Holdings Inc.

Businessmen Lucio Tan Jr., a minority shareholder in Menlo, Salvador Zamora 2nd and Benjamin Bitanga used Menlo to enter the telco business.

PT&T started operations in 1962, focusing on telegrams and analog long distance, and became a rival to PLDT.

No threat

Allan Cabanlong, Department of Information and Communications Technology undersecretary for cyber- security and enabling technologies, said the Philippines should embrace innovation and stop being “pessimistic.”

charge of cyber- security… I always believe that we should not be affected by ‘pessimism’ as this would hinder innovation… It’s okay for China Telecom or any telco to come in,” he told The ManilaTimes.

Cabanlong noted that even PLDT has been using China products like Huawei’s mobile technology.