‘Issue of telcos refund won’t die’

MANILA, Philippines—Party-list group Bayan Muna will ask the higher courts to order mobile phone providers to speed up their reimbursement of P7 billion in excess charges slapped on millions of subscribers.

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares: We will not allow the case to sleep. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

“We know the telcos’ game plan is to bring this case to court and let it sleep there until it is forgotten, but we will not allow that,” said Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares in a statement. “We will intervene in the CA (Court of Appeals) and the SC (Supreme Court).”

The country’s biggest telecom firms—Globe Telecom and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which operates Smart Communications and Sun Cellular—announced Friday they would contest the National Telecommunications Commission’s  order to refund an estimated P7 billion in “excess” charges for certain text messages over the past two years.

The NTC had ordered Globe, Smart and Sun to slash their short message service (SMS) rate to “other networks” from P1 to 80 centavos.—Gil C. Cabacungan