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COMMISSIONER Ruel Canobas of the National
Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and three other
department heads were subpoenaed yesterday by a Makati
court in connection with a motion to terminate
rehabilitation proceedings and to allow the liquidation
of Liberty Telecoms.
Canobas,
together with NTC frequency management division (FMD)
chief Priscilla Demition, former FMD acting chief
Joselito Leynes and Abigail Santillan-Felix, NTC legal
director, were ordered by Branch 149 of the Regional
Trial Court in Makati to appear this Friday at 2 p.m.
They
were ordered to testify on the telecommunications
services and corresponding frequencies awarded to the
debt-ridden firm by the NTC.
The NTC
officials are expected to also testify on the status of
the provision of Liberty’s telco services and the
frequency bandwidths which the phone firm currently
utilizes, but not limited to the WiMax network service.
Liberty proposed to offer WiMax services under the
court-approved rehabilitation plan.
The
subpoenas were delivered to the NTC yesterday afternoon,
although the officials refused to comment.
For his
part, Sixto Jose Antonio, legal counsel of Rizal
Commercial Banking Corp., said: “The ball is now in the
hands of these NTC officials. It’s either they won’t
show up or they could send representatives or they could
all show up. We really do not know what will happen. It
is very important for them, though, to really tell the
truth.”
RCBC, a
creditor-bank of
Liberty,
asked the same court on May 15 to terminate the
rehabilitation proceedings of Liberty Telecom Holdings
Inc. (LTHI), Liberty Broadcasting Network Inc. and
Skyphone Logistics Inc. for failure to implement a
court-approved rehab plan.
LTHI is
owned by businessman Raymund Moreno and is the holding
company of LBNI and SLI. LBNI holds a congressional
franchise to provide telecommunication and broadcast
services, while SLI performs marketing, distribution and
logistics support services.
Court
records showed that LTHI promised it will operate a
nationwide voice-and-data network called WiMax, which,
it claimed, would be the main service or product for the
10-year rehab plan.
The
WiMax network, which will provide wireless broadband
service, is expected to contribute more than 90 percent
to LTHI’s total projected revenues. It said the
capability of LTHI to take advantage of the WiMax
technology will put the company at par with the other
phone firms in the country.
According to the business plan submitted by LTHI to the
court, the wireless broadband service will provide very
high revenues and earnings due to its tremendous
potential.
However,
RCBC found that the frequency spectrum in which the
wireless broadband service will operate on has been
recently reallocated by the NTC to Smart Broadband Inc.
(SBI).
“Based
on records of the NTC, it appears that the proposed
WiMax network under the 700MegaHertz (MHz) frequency
which was claimed by the petitioners to be their
existing frequency allocation… cannot be said to be
feasible, even possible now. Specifically, it appears
based on NTC records that SBI has applied for and
reportedly been allocated and granted the 700 MHz
frequency,” RCBC stated in its motion.
“Accordingly, possession, disposition and control of the
700 MHz frequency is indispensable as without it,
petitioners can not set up, maintain and operate the
proposed WiMax network considered by the Court as in
approving the rehab plan. It is inevitably clear that
petitioners cannot comply with their obligations,” said
RCBC. |
