THE PHILIPPINE TELEGRAPH Corporation (“PT&T”) filed a Petition for Certiorari with the Supreme Court assailing the acts of the National Telecommunications Commission (the “NTC”) and the New Major Player Selection Committee (the “NMP Selection Committee”) committed during the selection process for the New Major Player in the Philippine telecommunications market (“3rd Telco Bidding”).
PT&T argued that the NMP Selection Committee gravely erred when it interpreted the term “regional operations” under the Rules and Regulations on the Selection Process for a New Major Player in the Philippine Telecommunications Market (“MC No. 09-09-2018”) as applicable only to foreign companies, effectively preventing any domestic corporation from participating in the 3rd Telco Bidding.
PT&T further alleged that the NTC gravely abused its discretion when it refused to certify that PT&T has the required technical capability to participate in the 3rd Telco Bidding despite the various arguments and evidence showing that PT&T has experience in the provisioning, delivery and operations of telecommunications services for the last ten (10) years on a national scale.
Moreover, PT&T argued that the NMP Selection Committee acted capriciously and with evident bias when it prematurely disqualified PT&T from the 3rd 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 3rd Telco Bidding, as what the NMP Selection Committee did in favor of the Mislatel Consortium with respect to the latter’s lack of a subsisting Congressional Franchise.
PT&T’s grievances lie solely with the NTC and NMP Selection Committee. However, PT&T impleaded the Mislatel Consortium as respondents in its petition because the corporations constituting said consortium are real parties in interest as defined under the Rules of Court.
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. (Jun Ledesma)
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