RET. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio warned of violation of the Constitution and national security risk if Congress enacts a law opening control and ownership of telecommunications companies (telcos) to foreigners.
“The Supreme Court is ‘supreme’ because it’s the final interpreter of words and phrases in the Constitution. But if Congress will pass a law interpreting and redefining these terms and phrases, you are taking away the power of the Supreme Court. This is a battle of turf between Congress and the Supreme Court. It is the Supreme Court that will decide and that Congress cannot reserve the power of the Supreme Court and to be the final arbiter of interpreting the constitution.” Carpio said in a webinar organized by the Philippine Bar Association.
Moreover, he also stressed the entry of local company Dito Telecommunity Corp. would be a threat to national security because of its partnership with Chinese state-owned China Telecommunications Corp, a parent company of China Telecom.
“Chinese law is mandating all Chinese companies, as citizens, to disclose to their intelligence services any information required by the intelligence service. That is a problem: that the Philippines is allowing ChinaTel to install telecom equipment in military camps and the fact that we have a conflict with China,” Carpio said.
“China is stealing territories such as the West Philippine Sea and our maritime zones. We do not have that problem with Globe, PLDT or with the Indonesians because we do not have territorial disputes with them, so this is unique to Dito and ChinaTel. We have to be very careful because we are fighting to preserve our territorial maritime zones in the West Philippine Sea and China is encroaching on our territory maritime zones,” Carpio added.
However, Dito Chief Administrative Officer Adel A. Tamano recently downplayed apprehensions saying “the country is not at war with China.” Tamano added that the company’s equipment and devices are not security hazards.
Carpio also lamented the state of the country’s digital infrastructure stressing the main of challenge of telcos is “that they do not have enough towers because they cannot get permits from local governments. But under the Bayanihan Act 2, all permits have been suspended except for the building permits.”
With the passage of Bayanihan Act 2, Carpio said the telcos can build all the towers that they want now to address the speed and connectivity issues.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) reported that 23 tower companies have been granted provisional certificates to participate in its accelerated tower program.
Moreover, the DICT said that the country needs over 50,000 towers to improve mobile connectivity in the whole country. Permitting timelines have also been limited to two weeks by drastic reforms in the permitting process.
University of the Philippines Professor Emeritus Gisela P. Concepcion said a robust cyber infrastructure is one of the paths to address the current environment dominated by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Meanwhile, Victor Andres C. Manhit, president of Stratbase ADR Institute, said government must prioritize and accelerate “the building of a robust and nationwide digital infrastructure to be accessible to all Filipinos.”
“A conducive policy environment that inspires confidence and boosts competitiveness will attract the right kind of investors who have the resources and technology to create long term positive impact to our economy and create the millions of jobs that our people need,” Manhit said.