By Genalyn Kabiling
President Duterte is satisfied with the selection of the Mislatel consortium as the third major telecommunications player, Malacañang said Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo reiterated that the President's primary concern was that the new major player made the "best offer" and followed the rules, including the regulations on the bidding process.
President Rodrigo Duterte
( REY BANIQUET/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) "The President does not interfere. He gives the departments and the offices the authority to do as it pleases in accordance with law. If you follow the law, then it’s all right with the President,” he said in a television interview. "We follow the rules. There is a law that requires certain conditions imposed on the bidders," he said. The government recently declared Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company (Mislatel) as the country's third major telco service provider nearly two weeks after it was announced provisional winner for completing the selection process. The consortium includes China Telecommunications Corp., Dennis Uy's Udenna Corp., and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. It will reportedly spend P258 billion to build a telco network, covering 84 percent of the country’s population, in five years. Panelo brushed aside speculations that Mislatel was named third telco player because of the President's bias towards the China firm and the Davao-based businessman. "So what? I mean, if they have the best offer to give," he said when asked about the President's earlier pronouncement about his preference for China Telecom. He also downplayed allegations about the close relations between the President and Uy. He said both Duterte and Uy hail from Davao but "they are not close." "They know each other, Dennis helped him but it doesn’t mean anything. I mean, you help somebody because you believe in his cause, doesn’t make the person your helping obligated to you or indebted to you," he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte( REY BANIQUET/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) "The President does not interfere. He gives the departments and the offices the authority to do as it pleases in accordance with law. If you follow the law, then it’s all right with the President,” he said in a television interview. "We follow the rules. There is a law that requires certain conditions imposed on the bidders," he said. The government recently declared Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company (Mislatel) as the country's third major telco service provider nearly two weeks after it was announced provisional winner for completing the selection process. The consortium includes China Telecommunications Corp., Dennis Uy's Udenna Corp., and Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. It will reportedly spend P258 billion to build a telco network, covering 84 percent of the country’s population, in five years. Panelo brushed aside speculations that Mislatel was named third telco player because of the President's bias towards the China firm and the Davao-based businessman. "So what? I mean, if they have the best offer to give," he said when asked about the President's earlier pronouncement about his preference for China Telecom. He also downplayed allegations about the close relations between the President and Uy. He said both Duterte and Uy hail from Davao but "they are not close." "They know each other, Dennis helped him but it doesn’t mean anything. I mean, you help somebody because you believe in his cause, doesn’t make the person your helping obligated to you or indebted to you," he said.