PT&T asks SC to reverse disqualification as 3rd telco bidder

The Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (PT& T) filed a petition on Friday to the Supreme Court to reverse its disqualification as the country's third telecommunications service provider.

The petition for certiorari assailed the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the selection committee for the new major player for "grave abuse of discretion" when they refused to certify that PT&T has the required technical capability to take part in the bidding.

In a letter to the NTC, the lawyers of PT&T belonging to the Zamora and Poblador Law Offices, informed the commission of SC petition and asked it to "secure the location or material where the First and Second Submission Packages are currently stored in order to preserve the integrity of the selection process."

Mislatel, a consortium of businessman Dennis Uy and China Telecom, was selected as the provisional third telco.

In a statement, PT&T said it was disqualified despite being able to show arguments and evidence "in the provisioning, delivery and operations of telecommunications services for the last ten (10) years on a national scale."

It also said that the selection panel abused its power when it interpreted the term “regional operations” as applicable only to foreign companies, which effectively prevented any domestic corporation from participating in the third telco bidding.

“The Selection Committee acted capriciously and with evident bias when it prematurely disqualified PT& T from the third telco bidding on the sole ground that it failed to submit a Certification of Technical Capability instead of deferring said submission until the document verification phase of the third telco bidding,” the company said.

PT& T questioned the selection committee's decision to defer the deadline of the third telco bid winner Mislatel Consortium's submission of a subsisting congressional franchise pending the document verification phase of the third telco bidding, a leeway that it did not give to PT & T.

“PT& T is hopeful that its petition will be acted upon favorably. We hope that the Supreme Court will act swiftly on the petition in view of the transcendental importance of the selection of the new major player in the Philippine telecommunications market,” it said.

The NTC has yet to respond to the petition. —Llanesca Panti/ LDF, GMA News