Is the PCC usurping the DICT and NTC?

Is the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) overstepping its boundaries and playing God?

Just last month, the PCC, chaired by Arsenio Balisacan, through the Office of the Solicitor General filed before the Supreme Court a petition seeking to lift the temporary restraining order issued by the Court of Appeals that has prevented the PCC from reviewing the P70-billion acquisition by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom of San Miguel Corp.’s telecom assets.

According to Balisacan, there are companies which have grown accustomed to unregulated business practices that hamper competition and ultimately hurt the consumers.

But aren’t telecom companies already subject to regulation by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)?

It will be recalled that the NTC itself approved last May 2016 the co-use by PLDT and Globe of the frequencies held by SMC’s telecom units. According to NTC deputy commissioner Edgardo Cabarrios, the acquisition deal and the co-use of frequencies will clearly benefit the public.

Meanwhile, the DICT and its head Rudy Salalima have urged PLDT and Globe to continue to build the infrastructure needed as well as utilize their spectrum allocations in order to improve internet speed in the country.

By preventing the sale of SMC’s telecom companies and the valuable 700 megahertz frequencies that they have, and with no other obvious and viable other buyers in sight, PCC in short wants these radio frequencies to remain unutilized.

If the NTC, which is the quasi-judicial agency that clearly has the technical competence when it comes to the telecommunications industry, did not oppose the sale of these telco frequencies, then who is Balisacan and the PCC to contradict it?

The PCC seems to be throwing its weight around and sticking its nose into matters which it has no expertise in. Power tripping maybe? Is it trying to send that message that if it can take down PLDT and Globe, then it can take down anybody, right?

Probably, everything boils down to whether or not the public will be benefitted by the transaction. The NTC already said yes it will, but the PCC would rather wait for that proverbial bird in the bush, believing that a viable third party telco player would be the better owner of the SMC telco assets. SMC could have been a third player but the fact is it sold its telco assets to PLDT and Globe. So how could this be anti-competitive behavior as claimed by Balisacan when it is market forces operated?

Does Balisacan lack the real-world experience to differentiate what is real from what is ideal but impractical? Or does he have his own hidden agenda? Just asking?

Clean-up OKD

Just last April 26, Environment and Natural Resources Office of Zambales (ENROZ) head Cesar Estrada informed Westchinamin president Mary Grace de Leon that it can continue with the collection and transfer of about a million metric ton of nickel laterites to what he described as a “safer area” at Shangfil Port in Barangay Bolitoc in Sta. Cruz town in Zambales.

The provincial government of Zambales earlier entered into a memorandum of agreement with local firm Westchinamin for the collection and disposal of nickel stockpiles which small mining operators have abandoned. A resolution was also issued by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan authorizing such contract.

Candelaria town mayor Napoleon Edquid earlier wrote the Zambales Sangguniang Panlalawigan about the urgency to remove and transfer those nickel stockpiles to avoid soil erosion and mudflows that would adversely affect residents, farmlands and river systems.

Edquid warned that the local government has only one month to prepare for the rainy season, stressing that mudflows containing nickel laterites could cover a big part of Candelaria and adversely affect the people, farmlands and river system.

Zambales Governor Amor Deloso justified the clean up order by saying it has legal basis under the Local Government Code and the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

The LGC empowers the provincial governor to come out with and implement emergency measures to meet impending natural and man-made disasters and calamities. Deloso said the cleaning operations could be regarded as part of the emergency operations.

Risky business

Ayala’s Alveo Land Corp. may have found itself in the middle of a political war threatening its latest project in Kawit, Cavite.

The company earlier unveiled its 200-hectare new estate development called Evo City in Kawit, a mixed-use project that will transform the area into a prime central business district.

According to sources, Alveo was being forced by the family of former transportation secretary Joseph Emilio “Jun” Abaya to award the contract to develop the property to Kamagong Corp. which is headed by Jun’s father, former Cavite congressman Plaridel Abaya.

The Abayas also allegedly sold 35 percent of the land covered by Evo City to Alveo at a much, much higher price when it could have been bought from the original owners at P50 per square meter.

Jun and five other former department officials are now facing graft charges for awarding a P3.8-billion contract to Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. Ltd. for the supply of 48 coaches to MRT-3. The complainants claim that none of the 48 coaches were operational and were not equipped with a signaling system.

The Abayas are said to be the political enemies of the family of the incumbent mayor, Angelo Emilio Aguinaldo who, incidentally, is Jun’s cousin.

Sources revealed that the Aguinaldo clan will not take kindly to seeing their political rivals developing a multi-billion peso property in the middle of a political clan war.

Unfortunately, parent Ayala Corp. does not do business this way and always gives respect to the powers-that-be. Not so hidden agenda