Raul Pangalangan's column in the Inquirer today is entitled,
"Finally, the tipping point?"
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropin...ping-point
UP law professor Harry Roque has exposed the diversion of some P600 million of a P2.5-billion swine program to fund the campaign chest of pro-Arroyo senatorial candidates. Strangely, Malacañang has given its tried-and-tested response to these periodic crises of confidence. Faced with Roque’s exposé, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol says: So sue us before our favorite ombudsman. When Roque proposes to impeach the ombudsman, the House Speaker threatens to throw it out like it did the Lozano complaints.
When Senator Francis Escudero asks for a Senate inquiry, Apostol invokes the bank secrecy laws. Escudero and Roque remind him that we are not dealing with bank deposits here. I too remind him that the bank secrecy laws didn’t seem to bother him when he wanted to open Erap’s bank records during the impeachment trial.
Finally, Malacañang asks us to trust our institutions, yet the Commission on Audit, the constitutional watchdog agency that was supposed to have unearthed the scam, hasn’t and won’t.
...That's not all.
Neal Cruz' article today is entitled,
"Another broadband scandal at NTC"
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropin...dal-at-NTC
They never stop trying. On the heels of the foiled ZTE national broadband network (NBN) scam comes another scandal. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) secretly allocated Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) frequencies to a bankrupt company, Liberty Broadcasting Network Inc. (LBNI).
Court records show that LBNI filed for rehabilitation before the Regional Trial Court of Makati, Branch 149. This shows that LBNI currently has no financial capacity to provide the service. LBNI has since effectively ceased operations, and without any operations and employees, it could not possibly have the required financial and technical capability to provide the service. Thus, the allocation of valuable BWA frequencies to a company which is not financially and technically capable of providing the telecommunications service prejudices the general public.
Due to recent developments in the wireless technology, especially the introduction of the BWA, a number of telecommunications providers are fiercely competing for allocation of the available frequencies. Why in heaven’s name did the NTC allocate, secretly, four of these limited frequencies to a bankrupt company?
The recent discovery of this secret allocation by the NTC without any hearing and publication and service of notice, as required by law and the NTC rules, to affected parties, principally the competing telecom providers to give them the opportunity to oppose the allocation, makes the allocation by the NTC illegal.
The affected telecom providers, Congress and the public should demand an investigation.
"Finally, the tipping point?"
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropin...ping-point
UP law professor Harry Roque has exposed the diversion of some P600 million of a P2.5-billion swine program to fund the campaign chest of pro-Arroyo senatorial candidates. Strangely, Malacañang has given its tried-and-tested response to these periodic crises of confidence. Faced with Roque’s exposé, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol says: So sue us before our favorite ombudsman. When Roque proposes to impeach the ombudsman, the House Speaker threatens to throw it out like it did the Lozano complaints.
When Senator Francis Escudero asks for a Senate inquiry, Apostol invokes the bank secrecy laws. Escudero and Roque remind him that we are not dealing with bank deposits here. I too remind him that the bank secrecy laws didn’t seem to bother him when he wanted to open Erap’s bank records during the impeachment trial.
Finally, Malacañang asks us to trust our institutions, yet the Commission on Audit, the constitutional watchdog agency that was supposed to have unearthed the scam, hasn’t and won’t.
...That's not all.
Neal Cruz' article today is entitled,
"Another broadband scandal at NTC"
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropin...dal-at-NTC
They never stop trying. On the heels of the foiled ZTE national broadband network (NBN) scam comes another scandal. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) secretly allocated Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) frequencies to a bankrupt company, Liberty Broadcasting Network Inc. (LBNI).
Court records show that LBNI filed for rehabilitation before the Regional Trial Court of Makati, Branch 149. This shows that LBNI currently has no financial capacity to provide the service. LBNI has since effectively ceased operations, and without any operations and employees, it could not possibly have the required financial and technical capability to provide the service. Thus, the allocation of valuable BWA frequencies to a company which is not financially and technically capable of providing the telecommunications service prejudices the general public.
Due to recent developments in the wireless technology, especially the introduction of the BWA, a number of telecommunications providers are fiercely competing for allocation of the available frequencies. Why in heaven’s name did the NTC allocate, secretly, four of these limited frequencies to a bankrupt company?
The recent discovery of this secret allocation by the NTC without any hearing and publication and service of notice, as required by law and the NTC rules, to affected parties, principally the competing telecom providers to give them the opportunity to oppose the allocation, makes the allocation by the NTC illegal.
The affected telecom providers, Congress and the public should demand an investigation.
