President Duterte has given China the “privilege” to enter the Philippine telecommunications industry as part of efforts to end the existing duopoly in the country.
In a news briefing on Monday, Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said the offer was made during the bilateral meeting between Duterte and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last Wednesday.
“During the bilateral talks between President Duterte and the Chinese Premier, President Duterte offered to the People’s Republic of China the privilege to operate the third telecoms carrier in the country,” Roque said. “This comes after the Philippine government signed with an affiliate of Facebook a project entitled the “Luzon Bypass” of the Pacific Light Cable Network, which will provide [a] bandwidth of 2 terabits per second.”
The government has tied up with Facebook in putting up the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure, a high-speed Internet network promising a capacity on a par with that of Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT Inc.
According to Roque, the landing party agreement with Facebook was supposed to be signed in December, but it was neglected by former Information and Communications Technology Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima.
“This agreement with the subsidiary of Facebook should have been signed as early as December 2016. It was not signed by the former secretary of the DICT [Department of Information and Communications Technology], and this was one of the areas pinpointed by Cabinet investigators as an area of conflict of interest for the former secretary of [the] DICT,” Roque added.
“It was further reported by the special investigating committee that the former DICT secretary, likewise, may have prevented the earlier breakup of the duopoly by delaying the use of satellites as viable option. There was a realization period of almost five years and, meanwhile, this preserves for the duopoly the market,” the Palace official said.
Salalima in September resigned from his post, owing it to personal and work-related reasons.
However, the President later claimed it was he who instructed Salalima to leave the Cabinet for allegedly being partial to a private company.
Nonetheless, Roque said the government will not cry over spilled milk, and will just carry on with what is in hand to provide the public better Internet service. “So, the good news is, the consumers can look forward now to better telecommunications, not just in terms of cellular technology, but also in terms of Internet speed, as well as access.”
“This is the latest instance of the President proving that he has the political will to do what is necessary to benefit the Filipino people. I repeat, the announcement is that duopoly—that telecoms duopoly—is about to end with the entry of the Facebook subsidiary, as well as the offer by the President of the People’s Republic of China to operate the third telecoms carrier,” Roque added.
According to Roque, Duterte has instructed the Office of the Executive Secretary to manage all applications of Chinese telecom companies bidding to operate in the country.
The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) will be shelling out P975 million to build the Luzon Bypass Infrastructure, a bypass route for an international submarine cable network to be built and used by Facebook—allowing the government to tap, in exchange, a spectrum equivalent to 2 terabytes per second.
According to a BCDA source, who requested anonymity, the state-owned asset-disposition firm will be investing this amount in constructing the bypass route, plus two cable-landing stations in Poro Point and in Aurora, Baler. The passage will provide a secure and disturbance-free route for Facebook-operated submarine cables, which otherwise had to pass through the tumultuous Luzon Strait.
The same source said that Facebook contacted the Philippine government to essentially seek right-of-way in the Luzon area, in exchange for the spectrum.
With Catherine N. Pillas