Globe, PLDT preempted SC by settling payables with SMC – antitrust body

PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc. should not have made the final payment for San Miguel Corp.'s telecom assets until the cases pending before the courts have been resolved, the Philippine Competition Commission said Wednesday.

"Completing the payment for the telco assets is a move that unduly preempts the forthcoming rulings of the SC and the CA," the antitrust watchdog said in an emailed statement.

The transaction has a pending case before the Supreme Court, seeking to lift an injunction against a review of the P69.1 billion co-acquisition deal.

Earlier this month, Globe said the PCC was restrained from doing anything regarding the transaction.

The final payment for the co-acquisition was scheduled on May 30, a year after the deal was announced.

Both companies supposedly completed the payment on Tuesday.

"Yes, we made the final payment yesterday," Ramon R. Isberto, PLDT Public Affairs head, told GMA News Online.

Globe said it is coming up with a statement on the matter Wednesday afternoon. "Yes. We are fully paid. Yes. Yesterday," said Yolanda Crisanto, Globe senior vice president for Corporate Communications.

"The big-ticket deal goes beyond the purchase itself because of its impact on public interest," the PCC said.

In a separate statement, Globe said said there was nothing irregular about the transaction.

"Globe insists that it is in compliance with all regulatory requirements in completing the contractual obligation in the acquisition of the telco assets of San Miguel; and that Globe did not violate any rule or prevailing law at the time the transaction was signed," Globe General Counsel Froilan M. Castelo said.

"Given the pending cases in the courts, this press statement of the PCC is in violation of the gag order issued by the Court of Appeals. This is contemptuous and PCC should be held liable for this," he added.

For its part, the PCC argued that the review of the deal was a matter of public interest.

"As with any transaction that must be reported to the PCC, the P69.1 billion deal needs to be reviewed through a market competition lens to safeguard consumer welfare over the long-term," it added.

If only Globe and PLDT complied with the review, it would have been completed by now, the commission said.

"This telco-deal review would have been completed earlier if only the parties submitted the required notification," it said.

"The PCC may be fairly new and companies are still adjusting to the regulatory framework of the Philippine Competition Act, but they must strictly adhere to the law. Globe and PLDT should not be exempted," it added. — VDS, GMA News