Scrapping of rural phone scheme catches officials by surprise

The Municipal Telephone Project Office (MTPO) was caught by surprise by the announcement of the Economic Coordinating Council (ECC) to shelve the P53-billion "Telepono sa Barangay" (TSB) program which would have benefited rural areas without basic telephone service.

"We didn't know anything about it. We were not informed," said Transportation Undersecretary and MTPO project director Willie Evangelista yesterday.

Evangelista, however, said that the decision is not final until the President himself gives the order. Mr. Estrada is expected to issue a statement today.

But even if the life term of the MTPO, which ends in Feb. 8, is not extended, Evangelista said that two other contracts, those of Canadian firm SRTelecom and US-based Lucent Technologies, will push through since they have been agreed upon more than two years ago.

Renegotiations, however, are still ongoing with Lucent for some changes in project design.

The P4-billion deal with SRT involves the installation of payphones in 2,227 barangays. Each payphone is equivalent to 10 lines.

The original contract signed by the late Transportation and Communications Secretary Arturo Enrile, however, merely entailed the laying down of five lines in each of the 1,046 barangays covered by the project.

Lucent's P357.4-million contract approved by then acting DOTC Secretary Josefina Lichauco, on the other hand, is being amended to include 754 barangays with 10 lines each as compared to the previous plan of 444 barangays with five lines each.

Evangelista stressed that while the previous TSB contracts were grossly disadvantageous to the government and were exorbitantly priced, the current MTPO management is working to reduce the project cost by 75 percent.

Thus, from a high of $19,000 to $34,000 per line, the MTPO is trying to reduce the amount to $4,000 to $6,000 per line to make it more viable.

Moreover, the proponents have already agreed to a 60-40 arrangement with the government, wherein 40 percent of all manpower, supplies and equipment that will be used for the program will be sourced locally instead of almost all being imported.