I hope this is not true Mr. Zobel; Manila Standard Today columnist Mr. Jojo Robles wrote that a curious letter from Mr. JAZA was directly addressed to Pnoy zooming past NTC.
Call it powerplay, I say whatever...
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And it’s not only the friends and cronies who are seeking repayment for services rendered. If one published report is true, then the deep-pocketed donors to the Aquino campaign now also want their share of the spoils.
A newspaper has reported that Ayala Corp. head honcho Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala recently wrote President Noynoy Aquino a letter recently seeking concessions for his family’s Globe Telecoms. If genuine, the letter, co-signed by Globe president Ernest Cu, shows how some business interests close to this administration are now seeking payback.
As the report noted, Ayala and Globe should have coursed their request to the National Telecommunications Commission, the government agency that gives out the 3G bandwidth that the company seeks. Why the request was sent directly to Aquino was not explained.
The disclosure of Ayala’s letter is the latest wrinkle in the long-running controversy surrounding the buy-in of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan’s PLDT of a majority stake in the Gokongwei family’s Digitel. Globe, after initially expressing approval for the purchase, is now protesting the deal, on the grounds that it puts the Ayala telco at a disadvantage.
Globe has claimed that the PLDT-Digitel merger would kill competition in the telco industry, raise prices and lead to poor service for subscribers. It asked the government for numerous concessions, including the transfer of 22 megahertz of the valuable 3G spectrum from PLDT to Globe to create a “level playing field.”
Not surprisingly, PLDT has a different view. The Pangilinan group has accused the Ayala telco of “regulatory blackmail” because Globe is raising false charges to extract special privileges from government.
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The Globe-PLDT controversy is really a technical matter which is best left to regulators and even the courts to unravel. But the letter of Ayala and Cu to Aquino gives credence to Pangilinan’s contention that the Makati-based family —a long-time Aquino supporter—is using its muscle with Malacañang to get concessions in business.
The Globe letter is unusual since 3G frequencies are not assigned to anyone (not even by the President) but bid out by NTC. But here was Ayala seeking the assignment of “additional 3G frequencies-particularly the currently unassigned blocks referred to as 3G UMTS Channels 10, 11, and 12 that total 15 megahertz (MHz) for its use in service to the consuming public.”
“We earnestly hope for your favorable consideration for this request. . . You can always count on our support as engaged and committed long term investors and service providers,” the letter supposedly said, in closing.
The Ayalas and Globe will have to explain why they went over the heads of the officials of NTC and directly asked Aquino himself to intervene in a business dispute. Or they will lay themselves open to the charge that they are merely out for payback, just like all of Aquino’s favored friends and political supporters.
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