MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte did not have a hand in choosing the company of Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy as the provisional third major telecommunication player in the Philippines, Malacañang clarified.
Uy’s consortium had undergone the proper bidding process without intervention from the President, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo told a press briefing at the Palace.
“As we all know, relationship, alliances, friendships do not matter with this President. What matters with him is, ‘You follow the law, I’ll be with you. You don’t follow the law, I’m against you,’” Panelo said.
“The President’s policy is not to interfere with his departments. The President has nothing to do with any of those biddings, any of those negotiations or contracts,” he added.
On Wednesday the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) announced that Mislatel – a consortium of Uy’s Udenna Corp., Chelsea Logistics Corp. and China Telecom – has been chosen as a provisional telecommunications provider in the country.
Curiously, Uy was one of the campaign contributors of Duterte during the 2016 elections. He is also the president, CEO and director of Phoenix Petroleum Corp.
Two other groups submitted bids for the third telecoms slot on Wednesday – Tier One and the Chavit Singson-led LCS Group of Companies, and the Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T), but both were disqualified.
The Singson-led consortium did not submit the P700-million “participation security,” while the PT&T did not have a Certificate of Technical Capability.
Other companies that bought bid documents were AMA Telecommunications, Converge, Mobitel Holdings GmbH, NOW Telecom, Telenor ASA Group, and Streamtech./PN
