By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
lawyer.”
National Economic Development Authority Regional Director Milagros Rimando commented on my Facebook post relating the lighter side of our meeting at the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on July 27 that to get a deputy commissioner of the NTC listen to the Internet woes of Tabuk City would already be an achievement. In that occasion, all three commissioners were present.
Right after the meeting, Engr. Daniel Peckley, Jr., my lone companion, had wondered how I was able to get the NTC en banc, lawyers of Smart and Globe and the NTC regional directors for CAR and Region 2 in one room. I told him that the meeting was a part of the regular conference of the NTC with its regional directors and stakeholders like the telcos so those personalities were all there for another purpose. He said even then and I would agree with him eventually when it occurred to me that except for Deputy Commissioner Delilah Deles who left in the middle of the meeting, all those important people stayed until the end of the two and half hour conference.
The idea of a meeting between the commission and myself was raised by Regulation Branch Acting Director Imelda Walcien in our email communications on what happened to Memorandum Order No. 07-07-2011 and Memorandum Circular No. 07-08-2015. Tabuk City Internet users accuse the commission of sitting on the two issuances. Walcien had suggested at first that I could attend the “Issues and Concerns” at the end of their two-day conference to raise my queries on the orders. Wanting to make sure I would not be wasting my time and throwing away money, I set some conditions: the commissioners should be there; the representatives of the telcos should be of the calibre they could talk and make decisions for their companies then and there; the meeting should be open in the sense that the contents could be for public consumption; the time should be sufficient to resolve the questions; and I could bring some companions. Walcien assured that all these elements would be present and I could invite a maximum of four other people to the meeting.
On the way to the meeting, I consulted Daniel on the tone to adopt specifically asking him if it would be helpful to open up with the following: “We came to find out where exactly in limbo are Memorandum Order No. 07-07-2011 and Memorandum Circular No. 07-08-2015” and “If you notice some nervousness in me, it is because I feel I have come into enemy territory.” Daniel laughed but shook his head saying that as an engineer, his practice is to just go straight to the point without wasting words. He regretted that we did not have a lawyer with us because, according to him, based on his experience, if one wants government officials in Metro Manila to sit up and listen, they should bring a lawyer. I did not tell Daniel then but deep within me, I was confident that if the subjects are just the two issuances and the specific problems of Tabuk City Internet users and their causes and possible solutions, not even the most brilliant lawyers could help the cause of the NTC and the telcos.
And why should I not ooze with confidence when I have made serious accusations against NTC officials and called them all sorts of unflattering names in letters to the editor published in national newspapers and was not gratified with any answer when NTC has a battery of lawyers and Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba is a lawyer himself? One of the letters which was used by the Manila Times as its editorial on July 21, 2016, I called the NTC “toothless, inutile, lying and treasonous agency” in connection with their eight months inaction on the complaint of Tabuk City clients against Smart. The NTC did not answer the letter but Cordoba, that same day the letter was published, ordered the NTC-CAR to conduct an investigation.
When we got to the NTC some minutes before 3 PM, the scheduled start of the meeting, Walcien told us to wait a little bit as the commissioners were still engaged. We found some people in the conference room who introduce themselves to us as the telco representatives. They were all friendly and all smiles. You could not tell they are the apologists of two of the worst news that ever happened in the public utility history of this country. None of their names registered in my mind and I was not conscious that two of them — one from each telco — were lawyers. It was only around the middle of the meeting when Daniel, while speaking to the body, referred to the lead representative of Globe who was seated beside me as “Atty. Manny” (Manuel Casino). I would find out from Walcien sometime later that Casino is Vice President of the Litigation Division. But going over his performance during the meeting, I would fire him if I were his bosses. His defence got Globe into deeper trouble. We will go into that later.
Frankly, I did not care about titles while in that room or anyplace when dealing with telcos and the NTC which is supposed to see to it the services of the latter are fit for human consumption. The only measure I use when it comes these people is the quality of service delivered and our Internet service stinks to high heavens despite all the titles those people there and those of the other officials of their telcos all the way to the top wear. So that afternoon, I did not mince words, I pulled no punches. I noticed that neither did Daniel.**(To be continued)
