Bring it on. This was the response of Converge ICT Solutions founder and CEO Dennis Anthony H. Uy when asked about his stand on the call of some sectors to fully open the country’s telecom sector to foreign players.
“I welcome foreign investors. However, I also want the governments of these foreign players to give Philippines companies a reciprocal treatment,” Uy said in a recent one-on-one online interview with the BusinessMirror.
“For example, if I am going overseas to invest, will they also welcome me? They must give Filipino investors fair and equal treatment.”
Uy said it would be quite unfair if foreign telcos are allowed to operate here and compete against the local telcos while Filipinos will have a hard time or be prevented from investing in other countries.
“I will repeat. It should be reciprocal.”
The House of Representatives passed in March 2020 House Bill 78 which aims to amend the Commonwealth Act 146 or the Public Service Act that allows foreign ownership of telecommunications and transportation businesses which also removes the 60-40 rule on foreign ownership.
Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman voted against the measure because it contradicts Section 11 of Article XII of the Constitution which gives majority (60 percent) ownership, operation, control and management of public utilities to Filipino citizens or to Filipino-owned corporations or associations.
Nevertheless, Uy said Congress should have included a reciprocity clause that indicates that foreign players should not be state-owned or state-controlled. “If we are competing against a state-owned company, we will not stand a chance because of their huge resources.”
He said the Senate raised good points by raising the issues of reciprocity and entry of state-owned companies.
Earlier, Senators Panfilo Lacson and Risa Hontiveros dissented on the plan to exclude telecommunications from the definition of public utilities in the amendatory bill for the 85-year-old Public Service Act now being rushed through the Senate.
Lacson said the new version of the PSA might run into a “constitutional challenge” because it contravenes the objective of the 1986 Charter framers, which clearly articulated that telecommunications as a public utility must be controlled by Filipinos.
Hontiveros warned of “grave consequences on national security” if telecoms would be classified as a non-public utility as this would enable Chinese players to gain control of a crucial sector.