Amando Doronila’s June 1 column (“Monopolistic rampage”) launched yet another vitriolic attack on PLDT and its chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan. Since when has he been lawyering for PLDT’s main rival?
What I found rather odd was that nowhere in his piece does Doronila mention the fact that Globe Telecom wanted to acquire Digitel/Sun Cellular for itself.
Globe has tried mightily to downplay this fact, even telling senators that there were “talks” with the Gokongwei-owned Digitel but that these were preliminary. Globe, in effect said that it was not really serious in pursuing it. But since it had been left biting the dust with the PLDT-Digitel deal, Globe has been raising the monopoly bogey at every opportunity, and Doronila seems to have embraced it hook, line and sinker. Doronila conveniently omitted to say that had Globe acquired Digitel, it would now be within striking distance of the current commanding lead of PLDT/Smart in the telecom industry, and would Globe and Doronila be crying wolf if this were the case?
The impression I get from Doronila’s commentary is that Pangilinan and Metro Pacific are single-handedly gobbling up every company they can lay their hands on, and if we don’t watch out, they could take over the government as well and transform it into Philippines Inc. The alarmist tone is misplaced and quite unfair, as Metro Pacific seems to be sticking only to its core competencies, and not unduly overstretching its capabilities.
I agree that we need an anti-trust law to prevent big business from riding roughshod over competitors and dictating unreasonable rates for consumers and the general public. But in the case of the telecom industry, Pangilinan and other PLDT officials have already given assurances that they would keep Sun Cellular and its bucket-price “unli” services, thus consumers have no reason to worry at all that they would have to pay astronomical rates as a result of the PLDT-Digitel combine.
—JERAMIE VALENCIA,
jera_valencia@yahoo.com