DICT's Rio says Mislatel not favored, won bidding fairly

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. denied on Tuesday allegations that the Mislatel was favored by the government to win as the provisional third telco.

"Paano ho namin masabi na ito'y pinaburan namin si Dennis Uy, kung 'yung dalawang kasama sa contest ay sila mismo ay hindi naglagay ng dokumento na kailangan," Rio said in an interview on GMA News' "Balitanghali."

Mislatel — the consortium of Dennis Uy's Udenna Corp., its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings Inc., and China Telecommunications Corp. — was declared as the provisional third telco on November 7.

At least six officers of the Filipino companies behind Mislatel contributed a total of P35.55 million to the 2016 campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Rio maintained on Tuesday, however, that Mislatel was the only third telco aspirant which submitted the requirements to qualify during the bidding process.

"'Yung selection process is a process na very objective, very transparent," said Rio.

Aside from Mislatel, two other groups submitted bids for the third telco slot — Sear Consortium of TierOne Communications International and Chavit Singson's LCS Group of Companies, and Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T).

Sear Consortium was disqualified for not submitting the "Participation Security" of P700 million, while PT&T was disqualified for lacking a Certificate of Technical Capability.

Both parties appealed the disqualification, but their motions for reconsideration were denied by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Tuesday.
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/companies/674559/ntc-gives-sear-pt-amp-t-appeal-on-disqualification-the-thumbs-down/story/

"Na-disqualify sila because of their own action," said Rio. — Jon Viktor Cabuenas/ LDF, GMA News