Thread by @mlq3

This is the big bonanza that makes everything worthwhile for supporting the president: the transformation of telecoms from a public utility to something else: allowing foreign ownership but giving Congress the delightful duty of approving franchises for operations to be allowed.

https://twitter.com/senatePH/status/1470724417160626176

I've been following this story, literally, for years, in the context of China Telecoms and its bid to be the Third Player. 11/22/2017, 2/14/2018, 7/17/2019 just for the saga of Uy.

Two follow-ups after the Uy matter was (temporarily, it now seems) settled: 4/14/2021 and 7/28/2021

Again the importance of this scheme, which has been pushed from the earliest days of the present administration, is that the law which states telecoms are a public utility, is being amended to declare they are not. This means the Constitutional requirements then as now, of...

Filipino ownership of public utilities no longer applies. This means telecoms can now be 100% foreign-owned. But what Congress intends to do, while removing telecoms from the list of public utilities, is to retain the requirement of a congressional franchise which means telecoms

as their franchises expire, have to lobby Congress for a new one. In a corrupt Congress this is a vastly lucrative requirement. But what the amendment of the law accomplishes in any case is sidestepping the previously-insurmountable problem of amending the Constitution and in

that manner allows the project of allowing China Telecoms to come in, to proceed. This would allow at the very least Dennis Uy to reduce his stake in Dito Telecoms or the Zobels to reduce their stake in Globe: it would also allow PLDT to drop its pretenses of being Filipino-owned

and reduce the risk of these corporations to a predictable one arising whenever its franchise is up for renewal.

Indeed, the scope of the amendment of the law which serves to essentially render inoperative the Constitutional mandate on ownership, is quite wide as it turns out:

https://twitter.com/PhilippineStar/status/1470759652145365001?s=20

FYI, the Public Service Act, as amended (but prior to ongoing amendments). region7.ntc.gov.ph/images/LawsRul…