DoJ, OSG to help search for 3rd telco

THE Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Department of Justice ( DoJ) will help in the search of the country’s third telecommunications provider, President Rodrigo Duterte’s top aide said on Thursday.

Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go said the DoJ and the OSG will ensure that there would be no legal loopholes in the deal.

“The terms of reference for the process of choosing, the [Department of Information and Communications Techonology] DICT said they will be able to finalize it next month so we can have the bidding in November,” Go said in an interview aired over dzRH, .

“We want to expedite this, but we have to be careful on the bidding. We are not the former administration that... points fingers. So, we are involving the OSG and the DoJ, so there will be no legal loopholes and to expedite [the naming of the third telco] because the President is already impatient,” he added.

“What I meant is, if there is a TRO (temporary restraining order), the implementation of the third telco will be slower,” Go said.

In his tete-a-tete with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Tuesday, Duterte said there will be a third telco player in December.

“I will resolve it by late October or early November. By Christmas, the people will know the third player,” he said.

To break the existing “duopoly” in the country, Duterte in November last year offered China the “privilege” to operate a third telco company in the Philippines.

PLDT and Globe Telecom continue to dominate the industry after San Miguel Corp sold its telecommunications assets to the two firms in May 2016.