MANILA, Philippines — Newly-appointed Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan said Tuesday he won’t pick a fight with the country’s major service providers as he takes over his predecessor’s job of easing the entry of a third telecommunications player.
“I will not be picking a fight. I am sure the other players in the telco industry have the country and public interest at heart,” Honasan told reporters.
“You can make money without killing each other,” he added.
Honasan assumed office more than a year after President Rodrigo Duterte signed his appointment papers on May 20, 2018. He replaces Eliseo Rio, who had held the post in an acting capacity.
Opponents of the appointment have stressed that a person is barred by the Constitution from benefiting directly from an office created while he was a member of Congress. The Department of Information and Communications Technology was carved out of the Department of Transportation and Communications in 2015 when Honasan was a senator.
Duterte last year invited China to be the Philippines' third telecom provider that would transform the country's troubled telco sector that has long been dominated by PLDT and Globe.
Davao-based tycoon Dennis Uy, an old friend of the president, teamed up with state-run China Telecom to form the Mislatel Group — which the Philippine government had formally declared as the country’s third telco carrier after two rival bids were rejected and foreign players backed out.
Rio expects the new telco player, Mislatel, to start operating by the first quarter of 2020. Aside from Mislatel’s entry, DICT is also counting on the agreement that involves the construction of an ultra high speed information highway in improving the speed, affordability and accessibility of broadband internet throughout the country by next year. — With reports from News 5 AKSYON/Jose Bimbo Santos and The STAR/Richmond Mercurio