MANILA – The House Committee on Legislative Franchises approved yesterday the transfer of controlling interest of Mislatel to Udenna Corp., Chelsea Logistics and China Telecom.
Some members of the committee said the corporate dispute between Mislatel and DigiPhil was not part of the legislative body’s responsibility.
Udenna and Chelsea are controlled by tycoon Dennis Uy.
Deliberations were deferred Monday due to some “legal impediments” including Mislatel’s agreement with DigiPhil as its “sole partner” in the utilization of telecom frequencies.
DigiPhil is a unit of Tier1, which, during the bidding proper, joined Mislatel’s rival Sear.
“There are parties that are questioning who are supposedly part of the consortium, ang naging position ng ating committee, hindi naman ‘yan parte ng tungkulin namin to decide kung sino ba ang dapat niyang maging partner kung sila ba o ‘yung kabilang grupo,” Quirino representative Dakila Cua said during the hearing.
Mislatel president Nicanor Escalante earlier said the agreement with DigiPhil was terminated due to “malicious misrepresentation.”
But DigiPhil Chairman Eduardo Millana on Tuesday said its agreement with Mislatel included bidding for the third telco slot.
Department of Information and Communications Technology Eliseo Rio in a separate statement said the “intra-corporate” issue between Mislatel and DigiPhil was outside the jurisdiction of the National Telecommunications Commission. (With ABS-CBN News/PN)
