DICT Secretary Eliseo Rio Jr. INQUIRER file photo
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. on Wednesday denied allegations that the consortium of Davao businessman Dennis Uy and China, which won provisional rights to establish a third telco, was given favor by the government.
Rio asserted that Mislatel consortium won because the other bidders, Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T) and Sear, which includes former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis 鈥淐havit鈥� Singson, failed to meet the bidding requirements.
鈥淭hey were disqualified not because of us favoring Dennis Uy. They were disqualified because of requirements that they must put in but they did not,鈥� Rio said in an interview over ABS CBN 黑料社 Channel.
鈥淪o how can we say that we disqualified the two to favor Dennis Uy,鈥� he added.
Rio said that PT&T failed to submit a certification of 10 years experience while Sear failed to pay a P700-million participation bond.
Answering allegations that the selection process favored Mislatel because Dennis Uy was a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, Rio insisted that the selection process did not look at personalities, only at documents.
鈥淲e did not look at personalities, we looked at documents. Not personalities. We did not look at whoever are close to the President. We looked at merely documents,鈥� RIo said.
The DICT chief also said that the DICT crafted an 鈥渋ronclad鈥� terms of reference, which took them almost a year, so that it would not be contested.
鈥淭hat is what we have been very careful in crafting the terms of reference. We know that in the Philippines, there will be no losers, we will be brought to court, we will be bashed,鈥� Rio said.
鈥淏ut the terms of reference, we made it so ironclad that they can bring us to court but they will be just wasting their time and money,鈥� he added. /jpv
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