Battle of the EOs
October 17, 2005 | 12:00am
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Philippine regulatory body for telecommunications and information technology, has been treated like a ping-pong ball lately, except that the playground is not a mere table tennis table but the entire broadcast and cable TV industry, the telecom and IT carriers, practically every entity that requires that scarce bandwidth from the radio frequency spectrum of the Philippines.
Being a quasi-judicial body, it is supposed to exercise awesome powers over these thriving industries. Even before the telecommunications industry became the profitable sector it is today, the NTC allocated what is known as a very valuable and scarce resource of our country – the frequencies on the Philippine radio spectrum. The latter refers to those waves, as of sound or electromagnetic energy, that pass a fixed point each second. The measurement of frequencies is what is commonly known as kilohertz from a particular bandwidth in the radio frequency spectrum.
Actually, it is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as the governing body for world telecom, that allocates the frequencies for every member of the ITU which, by the way, is the biggest United Nations agency, in order to achieve order in the international community, which frequencies are in turn allocated to the broadcast carriers (radio, TV and cable TV) and telecommunications and IT operators in the Philippines.
It was a chairman emeritus of a giant telecom firm in Japan who said that "without frequencies in this digital age, the world will stop functioning."
Being the regulatory body holding pretty awesome powers over all these industries, the NTC now regulates companies that have become giant money-makers in the business world. It is the NTC that issues to carriers, who obtained congressional franchises, the authority to operate after what is intended to be a speedy and efficient process in the NTC.
Not only the operations but the rates to be charged are subject to NTC regulations, currently, to a certain extent, because the free play of competitive pricing is an important dimension now.
In May this year, by virtue of EO 269, the office of the president consolidated all telecom and IT government agencies under one newly created agency. It’s called the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), with the former undersecretary for communications Virgilio L. Peña as chairman, with the rank of cabinet secretary.
Even the National Computer Center (NCC), which had never been part of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), was placed under the CICT. In fact, because the NCC office building is huge, Peña and his crew moved to the NCC Building in Quezon City.
When EO 269 was first issued, it made good sense, pending the creation of a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) by legislative fiat, to consolidate all IT and telecom agencies under the newly created CICT. Said bill had been already introduced in the House of Representatives, but remains pending. The rationale for the creation of the CICT, by EO and not by law, was the consolidation of all telecom and IT government entities under one roof as soon as possible.
What bothered me a little was the fact that EO 269 is not a legislative issuance, and in no way can amend the two EOs that had the force of law that provided for the formation of a new DOTC divorced from public works, and reorganized the new department and its attached agencies. These EOs were EO 546 during the Marcos dictatorship that split the old Ministry of Public Works, Transportation, and Communications, and EO 125 and 125A during the revolutionary tenure of Corazon C. Aquino.
Having been issued during the martial rule of Marcos, EO 546 had the force of law; and EOs 125 and 125A during the Aquino revolutionary term likewise had the force of law. I had reason to believe that only a legislative act can amend these two respective issuances.
Under both issuances, the NTC was empowered to exercise regulatory powers, including the very important and powerful responsibility of allocating frequencies to telecom and broadcast carriers. How could a mere EO of the incumbent president amend the EOs issued under exceptional and extraordinary circumstances through Aquino and Marcos?
I was aware of the provision in the Administrative Code of 1987, which has given the presidency a continuing power to reorganize. But this power was intended to be used judiciously.
Fine and good. EO 269, in its Sec. 5, even explicitly safeguards the quasi-judicial complexion of the regulatory body, the NTC, by providing: "The NTC shall now receive policy guidelines from the Commission provided that the Commission (referring to the CICT) shall not exercise any power which will tend to influence or effect a review or a modification of the NTC’s quasi-judicial functions."
In effect, EO 269 respected the provision under the charter of the DOTC and the NTC, that what DOTC exercised over the NTC was one of administrative supervision only.
Comes now EO 454, quite close to the issuance of EO 464, the former dated Aug. 16, 2005, not only transferring back to the DOTC "administrative supervision," but adding the words "and control."
What really horrifies me is the fact that prevailing legislation excludes control by the department over a quasi-judicial regulatory body like the NTC, while prevailing jurisprudence has stressed the meaning of "administrative supervision" as following merely the policy guidelines of the department.
The NTC is a quasi-judicial body whose decisions are appealable only to the Supreme Court, and the department to which it is attached, has absolutely no power to intervene in the formulation of a quasi-judicial body’s decision after due hearing and notice.
Between "administrative supervision" and "direct administrative supervision and control" is a wide ocean of difference! This violates the fundamental constitutional principle of Separation of Powers. You just can’t do that, not even by law, unless this fundamental principle is removed from the constitution, and the executive, the legislative and judicial branches of government are allowed to go helter-skelter crazily crossing each other’s paths. That’s the reason I was horrified!
But why? Why in heaven’s name was the NTC brought back to the DOTC where all telecom and IT offices, divisions and entities of government were consolidated under one mother agency, the CICT, recently? And its chairman, Secretary Peña is one of the most knowledgeable officials in ICT. He is also a person whose integrity is beyond reproach. Why transfer the NTC back to what, in effect now, is merely a Department of Transportation under retired Gen. Leandro Mendoza who really had absolutely nothing to do with ICT in the past?
The rationale for the transfer back to the direct supervision and control of the DOTC where the technical officials and employees in ICT have all been transferred by EO 269 to the CICT is "streamlining bureaucracy operations." This phrase is found in EO 454. My goodness, what a fallacy of a rationale! The NTC has not only been treated like a ping-pong ball, but is now by its lonesome, under the direct supervision and control of what is effectively now a mere department of transportation!
Isn’t this ridiculous? Isn’t this irrational? EO 454 can be unmasked as a close relative of EO 464. This issue should be brought before the Supreme Court likewise. Both EOs were issued close to each other. It is not as innocuous as it seems. Remember what the Japanese chairman emeritus said, that in this electronic digital age of ours today, "without frequencies the world will stop functioning"?
Without frequencies, broadcast media will stop functioning; without frequencies, carriers will be paralyzed. That’s the sword of Damocles over their heads, including ours, because we run the danger of having texting snatched from us. The presidential motive is crystal clear.
Thanks for your e-mails sent to jtl@pldtdsl.net.
Being a quasi-judicial body, it is supposed to exercise awesome powers over these thriving industries. Even before the telecommunications industry became the profitable sector it is today, the NTC allocated what is known as a very valuable and scarce resource of our country – the frequencies on the Philippine radio spectrum. The latter refers to those waves, as of sound or electromagnetic energy, that pass a fixed point each second. The measurement of frequencies is what is commonly known as kilohertz from a particular bandwidth in the radio frequency spectrum.
Actually, it is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as the governing body for world telecom, that allocates the frequencies for every member of the ITU which, by the way, is the biggest United Nations agency, in order to achieve order in the international community, which frequencies are in turn allocated to the broadcast carriers (radio, TV and cable TV) and telecommunications and IT operators in the Philippines.
It was a chairman emeritus of a giant telecom firm in Japan who said that "without frequencies in this digital age, the world will stop functioning."
Being the regulatory body holding pretty awesome powers over all these industries, the NTC now regulates companies that have become giant money-makers in the business world. It is the NTC that issues to carriers, who obtained congressional franchises, the authority to operate after what is intended to be a speedy and efficient process in the NTC.
Not only the operations but the rates to be charged are subject to NTC regulations, currently, to a certain extent, because the free play of competitive pricing is an important dimension now.
In May this year, by virtue of EO 269, the office of the president consolidated all telecom and IT government agencies under one newly created agency. It’s called the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), with the former undersecretary for communications Virgilio L. Peña as chairman, with the rank of cabinet secretary.
Even the National Computer Center (NCC), which had never been part of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), was placed under the CICT. In fact, because the NCC office building is huge, Peña and his crew moved to the NCC Building in Quezon City.
When EO 269 was first issued, it made good sense, pending the creation of a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) by legislative fiat, to consolidate all IT and telecom agencies under the newly created CICT. Said bill had been already introduced in the House of Representatives, but remains pending. The rationale for the creation of the CICT, by EO and not by law, was the consolidation of all telecom and IT government entities under one roof as soon as possible.
What bothered me a little was the fact that EO 269 is not a legislative issuance, and in no way can amend the two EOs that had the force of law that provided for the formation of a new DOTC divorced from public works, and reorganized the new department and its attached agencies. These EOs were EO 546 during the Marcos dictatorship that split the old Ministry of Public Works, Transportation, and Communications, and EO 125 and 125A during the revolutionary tenure of Corazon C. Aquino.
Having been issued during the martial rule of Marcos, EO 546 had the force of law; and EOs 125 and 125A during the Aquino revolutionary term likewise had the force of law. I had reason to believe that only a legislative act can amend these two respective issuances.
Under both issuances, the NTC was empowered to exercise regulatory powers, including the very important and powerful responsibility of allocating frequencies to telecom and broadcast carriers. How could a mere EO of the incumbent president amend the EOs issued under exceptional and extraordinary circumstances through Aquino and Marcos?
I was aware of the provision in the Administrative Code of 1987, which has given the presidency a continuing power to reorganize. But this power was intended to be used judiciously.
Fine and good. EO 269, in its Sec. 5, even explicitly safeguards the quasi-judicial complexion of the regulatory body, the NTC, by providing: "The NTC shall now receive policy guidelines from the Commission provided that the Commission (referring to the CICT) shall not exercise any power which will tend to influence or effect a review or a modification of the NTC’s quasi-judicial functions."
In effect, EO 269 respected the provision under the charter of the DOTC and the NTC, that what DOTC exercised over the NTC was one of administrative supervision only.
Comes now EO 454, quite close to the issuance of EO 464, the former dated Aug. 16, 2005, not only transferring back to the DOTC "administrative supervision," but adding the words "and control."
What really horrifies me is the fact that prevailing legislation excludes control by the department over a quasi-judicial regulatory body like the NTC, while prevailing jurisprudence has stressed the meaning of "administrative supervision" as following merely the policy guidelines of the department.
The NTC is a quasi-judicial body whose decisions are appealable only to the Supreme Court, and the department to which it is attached, has absolutely no power to intervene in the formulation of a quasi-judicial body’s decision after due hearing and notice.
Between "administrative supervision" and "direct administrative supervision and control" is a wide ocean of difference! This violates the fundamental constitutional principle of Separation of Powers. You just can’t do that, not even by law, unless this fundamental principle is removed from the constitution, and the executive, the legislative and judicial branches of government are allowed to go helter-skelter crazily crossing each other’s paths. That’s the reason I was horrified!
But why? Why in heaven’s name was the NTC brought back to the DOTC where all telecom and IT offices, divisions and entities of government were consolidated under one mother agency, the CICT, recently? And its chairman, Secretary Peña is one of the most knowledgeable officials in ICT. He is also a person whose integrity is beyond reproach. Why transfer the NTC back to what, in effect now, is merely a Department of Transportation under retired Gen. Leandro Mendoza who really had absolutely nothing to do with ICT in the past?
The rationale for the transfer back to the direct supervision and control of the DOTC where the technical officials and employees in ICT have all been transferred by EO 269 to the CICT is "streamlining bureaucracy operations." This phrase is found in EO 454. My goodness, what a fallacy of a rationale! The NTC has not only been treated like a ping-pong ball, but is now by its lonesome, under the direct supervision and control of what is effectively now a mere department of transportation!
Isn’t this ridiculous? Isn’t this irrational? EO 454 can be unmasked as a close relative of EO 464. This issue should be brought before the Supreme Court likewise. Both EOs were issued close to each other. It is not as innocuous as it seems. Remember what the Japanese chairman emeritus said, that in this electronic digital age of ours today, "without frequencies the world will stop functioning"?
Without frequencies, broadcast media will stop functioning; without frequencies, carriers will be paralyzed. That’s the sword of Damocles over their heads, including ours, because we run the danger of having texting snatched from us. The presidential motive is crystal clear.
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