{"id":263210,"date":"2020-07-28T06:41:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T10:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263210"},"modified":"2020-07-28T06:41:30","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T10:41:30","slug":"telcos-can-talk-to-ntc-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/28\/telcos-can-talk-to-ntc-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Telcos can talk to NTC: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after President Rodrigo Duterte, in his fifth State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA), urged Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc., the wireless arm of PLDT Inc., to improve their services by December or risk expropriation. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday said executives of the country\u2019s two major telecommunication companies can meet with the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) if they want to discuss in detail the plans to improve their services.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after President Rodrigo Duterte, in his fifth State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA), urged Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc., the wireless arm of PLDT Inc., to improve their services by December or risk expropriation.<\/p>\n

\u201cNandiyan naman po ang<\/em>\u00a0NTC,\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0regulatory body,\u00a0para makausap nila<\/em>\u00a0(The NTC is there for them to talk to),\u201d he said in a virtual Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

Asked if Duterte was open to meeting with executives himself, he said telcos should provide better service to their customers regardless if a meeting is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it is without prejudice to meeting with them\u00a0kung gusto nila pero importante,<\/em>\u00a0meeting or no meeting\u00a0pabutihin ang serbisyo<\/em>\u00a0(if they want but what\u2019s important is, meeting or no meeting, they should improve their services),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, the NTC will be in charge of declaring whether telco services have improved by December.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarami pong mga batayan iyan at alam po ng<\/em>\u00a0NTC\u00a0iyan, mayroon po iyong mga<\/em>\u00a0dropped calls,\u00a0mayroon po iyong mga\u2014kung malinaw nga ba iyong mga tawag, mayroon po silang mga<\/em>\u00a0measurement\u00a0para diyan<\/em>\u00a0(There are many bases to know that they have improved their services and the NTC knows them, there\u2019s the issue on dropped calls, on whether people can clearly hear each other, they have a way of measuring it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque lamented that besides Duterte, he too experienced issues with his mobile service.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung naghahawak ng<\/em>\u00a0certificate of public convenience\u00a0ay dapat magbigay ng<\/em>\u00a0convenience\u00a0sa publiko at hindi dapat nagpapahirap<\/em>\u00a0(Those with certificate of public convenience should give convenience to the public and not difficulty),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he denied that Duterte was prioritizing better mobile and internet services over the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi lang po<\/em>\u00a0telcos\u00a0ang sinabi niyang magiging prayoridad niya. Lahat po ng mga bagay-bagay na makakabuti sa taong-bayan \u2018yun po yung sinabi niyang prayoridad. Isa lang po ang<\/em>\u00a0telcos (He didn\u2019t say telcos will be his only priority. Everything that will benefit the people will be his priority. One of them is better telco service),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amid the health crisis, he emphasized the importance of communication especially among patients and their loved ones.<\/p>\n

In his fifth SONA, Duterte said he would take \u201cdrastic steps\u201d against Globe and Smart if they do not improve their \u201cless-than-ideal\u201d services by yearend.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell us now if you cannot really improve on it because I will work by December. I have two years. The next two years will be spent on improving the telecommunications of this country without you. I will find way. I will talk to Congress and find a way how to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday said executives of the country\u2019s two major telecommunication companies can meet with the National Telecommunication Commission …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":170044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263215,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263210\/revisions\/263215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}