More than the issue of valuation and transparency, the public outcry over the impending sale of the controversial PTIC block of PLDT shares centers on the question of foreign ownership of the country’s largest telecommunications company and the government’s strategic view of the telecoms sector.

If the proponents of the sale, including Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, see it otherwise and insist on limiting the consideration to pesos and centavos then they are in for a big surprise. The public does not look at this issue on monetary terms alone. It is judging our leaders’ moves on the basis of the aforesaid basic considerations.

Of course, the matter of valuation and transparency are very important especially since we are now getting information that the public bidding conducted by the Department of Finance for the sale of these shares was less than proper.

Critics say that the valuation of the shares was less than thorough and pithy to a degree. Pricing the shares at a 15-percent discount looks more like a fire sale than an honest and reasonable accounting of the value of the shares. Not only are telecoms stocks on the upswing, PLDT’s, in particular, has been hot for sometime now.

Those who are insisting that keeping those shares in government hands would be counterproductive are either blind to the dynamics of the market or simply unable to correctly grasp the wave of the future. Or, they may know something which the government and its representatives in the PLDT and PTIC boards do not know, i.e., that the dividends due government from its holdings in these companies have been diluted, diverted or not issued at all. Which may be the reason why they are insisting on a windfall.

Tsk. . . Tsk. . .

But no matter. These guys should know that the telecommunications sector worldwide has been and will continue to be an economic driver whether in the First World or the Third World. Not even war or threats of war or impending conflicts can negatively influence that outcome. Witness the consolidations in the sector in the US, Europe, Asia and even Africa and you will see why holding on to one’s telecoms holdings would be a winning move. To look at those shares as merely a means to bridge the budgetary gap is being short-sighted. Or, as one observer noted, selfish.

True, this windfall if it happens, will bring in the biggest nontax revenue in recent memory. That will surely shore up our credit standing and allow us some bragging rights of sort. But after that quick adrenaline rush where will government be? It will be left kicking itself in the butt as the telecoms caravan toward even more and better returns pass by.

Almost like what happened to the oil-industry deregulation, or even the avowed privatization of the power sector the government, and the public will be left looking from a distance as these critical sectors move in every direction under the baton of others. The government is powerless, the consumers even more so. As Senator Enrile and the others know, helplessness, even if merely felt or perceived, is a formula for social instability which no windfall can guard against.        

That the bidding was conducted in the middle of the holiday season left much to be desired. Some suggest that was more than enough proof it was done with undue haste. Others insist it was part of a bigger plan hatched by powerful forces to corner the block of shares and use the same as a bargaining chip with the two biggest PLDT shareholders—Hong Kong-based First Pacific which owns 30 percent of PLDT and Nippon Do Como, Japan’s biggest wireless service company, which owns 9.9 percent of the company. These two shareholders together with the putative winning bidder for the PTIC shares, Singapore-based Parallax Capital Management, which controls up to 7 percent of PLDT will already bring foreign ownership in the giant company beyond the 40 percent constitutional limit.          

Which brings us to the critical point of foreign ownership. Left unmitigated, this issue will continue to hound PLDT which can have graver consequences than for government holding on to the PTIC shares in the first place. As a listed company here and in the New York Stock Exchange this constitutional issue may bring it to public ridicule and peril.

Too, considering the importance of the telecoms sector anywhere, but probably even more so in countries such as the Philippines, ownership can be the handle for a public outcry which can shake the very foundations not only of the sector but of the entire country as well. We already have enough problems in the oil and power sectors, why should we insist on having even more in another basic sector, such as telecoms? For that P25-billion windfall? Well, Secretaries Teves and Andaya may want that but will it be good for the government and the country in the long run? That is the question.

TAGGED as a mere “talking shop” because of an unwritten rule to make decisions by consensus and its reluctance to interfere in the internal affairs of member-countries, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) appears deadset on proving the critics wrong, if the results of their latest meeting are any indication. 

The leaders of many of the world’s fastest-growing economies gathered on the Philippine island of Cebu last week to consider Asia’s future.

The Third House has spoken. This is the Bicameral Committee, the committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives which is tasked to reconcile their respective versions of the 2007 budget originally proposed by the Executive. It is called the Third House because its decision shapes the final version of the appropriations bill.

More than the issue of valuation and transparency, the public outcry over the impending sale of the controversial PTIC block of PLDT shares centers on the question of foreign ownership of the country’s largest telecommunications company and the government’s strategic view of the telecoms sector.

In God’s merciful forgiveness, a new hope, a fresh start, a more intimate relationship awaits His people (Isaiah 62:1-5). In the water transformed into wine, as a sign of the new order, the believers may now slake their deep thirst for salvation in the life and teachings of Jesus (John 2:1-12).