PLDT accuses Globe of forum shopping, seeking unfair concessions from government

MANILA, Philippines—Listed Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has accused rival Globe Telecom of forum shopping for asking the Department of Justice (DoJ) to intervene in the acquisition of mobile brand Sun Cellular.

PLDT legal counsel Ray Espinosa said Globe’s statements over the weekend asking for Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s intervention in the impending PLDT takeover of Sun operator Digitel Telecommunications Philippines Inc. was a “political cheap shot” meant to get unfair concessions from the government.

“Globe is stepping up the pressure on Government so that it will bestow upon Globe, as if as a matter of entitlement, state sponsored concessions which will change the market-driven advantages of its rival, particularly PLDT and Digitel,” Espinosa said on Tuesday.

PLDT expects to complete its P74.1-billion takeover of Digitel by the end of this month. But before this transaction can be completed, the company must first get the approval of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

The NTC held its second hearing on the deal on Tuesday. The proceedings will continue Wednesday.

Globe has opposed the deal, saying this would result in a monopoly by the PLDT group, to the detriment of consumers. The company has also asked Secretary De Lima, recently appointed as the country’s “competitive authority,” to look into the PLDT-Digitel deal.

Globe has asked the NTC and the DoJ to strip PLDT of some of its frequencies and put them up for bidding for smaller players. This would return the balance in the country’s competitive telecom sector.

“This undue benefit being extracted by Globe through a combination of public pressure and political rhetoric flies in the face of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits Government from giving undue benefit to any private party,” PLDT’s Espinosa said.

He added that the authority to approve the deal lay with the NTC.

“Globe’s legal counsel is fully aware that the Public Service Law explicitly provides that the NTC shall be the only approving authority for such a transaction in the exercise of the NTC’s quasi-judicial powers,” he said.

“Globe is fearful, and rightly so, that the scheduled NTC hearings will eventually show the benefits to the public service of the PLDT-Digitel transaction and expose the complete lack of basis of Globe’s arguments,” Espinosa said.

Once the deal is closed, the PLDT group will end up with a 70-percent market share, up from its current 55 percent.