Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte said over the weekend Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc. should stop blaming all local government units (LGUs) for their epic failure to upgrade their poor and slow services, more so now when President Duterte and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) have assured them there would no longer be any red tape in the processing of applications for the rollout of their cell site towers.
Villafuerte said Smart and Globe have been unduly using all LGUs as scapegoats when telcos companies should be blamed for failing for years now to invest enough capital to improve their services to world-class standards, in disregard of the chronic complaints by their tens of millions of customers about their inferior, yet relatively costlier, services compared to those in many other countries.
“The President is thus right to give these telcos a December 2020 deadline.”
“Their (telcos) epic failure for years now in bringing up their services to world-class standards have been magnified at this time of the coronavirus pandemic when superior internet connectivity would have greatly aided national efforts to switch right away to digital technology and online transactions, in practice of physical distancing to avoid COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) infection,” Villafuerte said.
“Back in 2017, I already called on these telco giants to provide better services and filed House Bill (HB) No. 1299 seeking to give consumers a venue to air their complaints against these errant firms,” Villafuerte .
The Camarines Sur lawmaker and former Camarines Sur governor was referring to his proposal in the past Congress to require the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to come up with a comprehensive and efficient system for subscribers to report their complaints of substandard services from their respective telco providers.
Back in 2017, Villafuerte also called on the Congress to legislate minimum quality standards for mobile telephone services that would finally punish telcos that are guilty of “horrendous” complaints by subscribers, such as poor network signals, overcharging, interrupted or dropped voice calls, vanishing prepaid loads and the surge of spam messages.
Rather than point their fingers at all LGUs—which these telcos have been wont to do—Villafuerte said Globe and Smart executives should identify which LGUs have supposedly delayed the issuance of their permits to build more cell site towers and other telecommunications infrastructure, which they have for years claimed to be the reason for their failure to improve fast enough their telecoms services.
“I challenge these telcos to submit their applications for tower rollouts in CamSur because I guarantee them that Governor Migz Villafuerte will process their permits in an expeditious manner,” said Villafuerte, whose son, Migz, is the incumbent provincial governor.
Moreover, Villafuerte questioned why telcos continue to gripe about red tape when Republic Act (RA) No. 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Law of 2018, had amended the Anti-Red Tape Act precisely to, among others, provide the public and businesses with an effective mechanism to ensure prompt action on, or resolution of, their government transactions.
RA 11032, which Villafuerte had co-authored, slaps penalties on local officials for their respective LGUs’ failure to act on applications for permits or other official transactions within the specified time for processing such documents.
Globe and Smart executives should identify which LGUs have supposedly delayed the issuance of their permits.
Villafuerte issued this statement as he expressed support for President Duterte’s warning last week in his 5thState of the Nation Address (SONA) to “expropriate” their frequencies should they fail to improve their services by yearend.
President Duterte had warned telcos in his SONA: “…if you are not ready to improve and … I might just as well close all of you and we revert back to the line telephone at kukunin ko yan, i-expropriate ko sa gobyerno.”
After Duterte made this warning in his penultimate SONA, Villafuerte recalled that during last week’s televised meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the President expressed his dissatisfaction anew with the inferior telco services.
Globe president-CEO Ernest Cu, who was present at the IATF meeting, pointed out that LGUs require around 25 to 29 permits that took almost eight months to process, along with other miscellaneous requirements, before the company could build the cell site towers required to deliver internet service in unserved communities.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said during the same televised IATF meeting that the DILG and other government agencies have already issued a Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) that would ensure the speedy approval of all licenses, permits and clearances for the establishment of “shared passive telecom tower infrastructure.”
The JMC was issued last July 22 or five days before the President delivered SONA in which he took telcos to task for their inferior services.
The signatories to the JMC are the DILG, Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA); the Departments of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), of Health (DOH), of Transportation (DOTr) and of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP); and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Had these telco companies invested in improving their service long before the pandemic struck, then they would have provided the country a great service, especially at this time when we are in urgent need of digital tools for distance education, contactless transactions and e-commerce,” Villafuerte said. “The President is thus right to give these telcos a December 2020 deadline to dramatically improve internet connectivity all over the country.”
Amid the government’s push for distance learning in Philippine schools in the face of the pandemic, Villafuerte proposed last month an “exceptional partnership” between Malacañang and ABS-CBN Corp. for the use of the latter’s broadcast facilities in the “blended” or distance learning format of the Department of Education (DepEd).
ABS-CBN subsequently offered the government the use of its TV and radio facilities for its distance learning system right after President Duterte said in his 5th SONA that there would be no face-to-face classroom teaching until the pandemic is over.
Villafuerte then welcomed the TV network’s offer of its TV and radio facilities for the “blended” learning format.