Mislatel skirts questions on lapsed franchise
An infrastructure-oriented thinktank said the Mislatel consortium has been skirting questions on the lapsed franchise of its consortium partner, Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company.
“As yet, the provisional new major player has not given an acceptable, direct response to questions on whether or not Mislatel has a lapsed congressional franchise for failing to list in the stock market.”
This was the statement of Terry Ridon, Infrawatch convenor and former member of the House committee on legislative franchises.
Ridon recently raised questions on the eligibility of the Mislatel consortium due to its supposedly lapsed congressional franchise for failing to list in the stock market.
Consortium partner explains
For its part, consortium partner Chelsea Logistics asserted the validity of Mislatel’s franchise in a clarification to the Philippine stock exchange (PSE).
“We wish to clarify that prior to the selection process for the third telco, the NTC published a list of telecommunications entities with existing legislative franchises. Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc (Mislatel) was included in the list,” Chelsea Logistics told the PSE.
The company also said that the NTC “has accepted the validity” of the franchise when it vetted the documents during the review held Wednesday.”
Questions on lapsed franchise unanswered
Ridon however countered that the consortium partner’s clarification did not refute the fact that Mislatel never listed in the PSE as required in its congressional franchise.
“Correspondingly, if Mislatel never listed in the stock market, its franchise law itself provides that Mislatel’s franchise will automatically be revoked.”
Ridon said it is irrelevant whether the NTC “has accepted the validity” of the franchise when it vetted the documents during the review held Wednesday.
“If the NTC had proceeded with the selection of Mislatel despite the automatic revocation of the Mislatel franchise as per its own franchise law, we are certain that the NTC, including the DICT, will find themselves acting in grave abuse of discretion.”
Ridon said the provisional NMP should not blame the NTC if the latter mistakenly accepted their bid despite a supposed non-operational congressional franchise.
“The consortium should have conducted ‘comprehensive due diligence’ to ensure that their bid is iron-clad and without weak spots.”
Ridon said allowing the provisional NMP to proceed despite unanswered legal questions such these bodes ill for the transparency and legitimacy of the entire process.
“We hope that NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba and DICT Sec. Eliseo Rio will be able to raise these concerns to the Mislatel consortium during the post-qualification stage. Anything less than an acceptable and direct response on why Mislatel has failed to list in the stock exchange should warrant their disqualification from the selection process.”
Fair, objective post-qualification stage “Amid the developing controversies surrounding the bid of provisional NMP Mislatel consortium, we hope that the same high standards of transparency and professionalism exhibited by the DICT and NTC during the first phase of the bid will continue in the post-qualification phase of the Mislatel consortium.”
Ridon said he has utmost confidence in the integrity of both Sec. Rio and Comm. Cordoba that “they will do the right thing given the developing circumstances.”