PLDT-Digitel hearings to continue, NTC says

THE SUPREME Court (SC) ruling on Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) possible violation of constitutional foreign ownership restrictions should not get in the way of the approval of the latter’s acquisition of mobile brand Sun Cellular.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Wednesday threw out Globe Telecom’s petition asking the regulator to suspend hearings on the PLDT-Sun Cellular deal.

“Further, without necessarily delving into the ruling … and its implication on the issue whether or not to suspend or continue the proceedings of the instant case, the Commission observed that the decision has not yet attained the status of finality,” the NTC said in its order on Wednesday.

“Hence, it does not as of yet form part of Philippine jurisprudence on which to base the suspension of proceedings, much less the dismissal of the instant case,” the NTC said.

The acquisition of Digitel Telecommunications Philippines Inc., operator of the Sun brand, will solidify PLDT’s position as industry leader, giving the group a 70 percent share in the local telecommunications industry.

The NTC is currently conducting hearings for the approval of the deal, which Globe had said would reduce competition in the sector and would therefore be bad for consumers. The next hearing will be on Monday.

The SC earlier ruled that PLDT, which is controlled by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, violated a provision in the Constitution that bans foreigners from having interests in key industries such as telecommunications.