THE public can only be amused over the way some members of Congress, sections of the press and even those self-pontificating ‘concerned citizens’ have waved the flag of “patriotism” in their self-serving campaign to stop the operation of the country’s third player in the telecommunication sector, ‘DITO Telecommunity Corporation,’ erstwhile known as ‘Mislatel.’
And of late, the target of their angst is the agreement that would allow DITO to install some of its “towers” inside military camps.
As DITO has partnered with Chinese telecom behemoth, China Telecom, the hypocrites now cry “national security” as basis in opposing the actual operation of DITO, claiming transmitted (military) data can be subjected to ‘cyber attacks’ ‘electronic farming’ and ‘hacking’ by China.
Let us be clear that Pinoy Exposé has no vested interest, hidden or otherwise, in this issue.
We don’t know anyone, the owners or even the janitors there at DITO.
But what we find so odious is the manner by which some crypto-patriots have made an issue out of nothing for the single purpose of sabotaging the entry of another major telecom player who, expectedly, can bring relief to the long-suffering subscribers of Smart and Globe.
Possibly, the attacks is because DITO, unlike other telecom players, cannot be subsequently coerced into surrendering its franchise and its right to operate to the country’s duopoly.
For is that not what happened before? Other telecom players, after getting a franchise from Congress, subsequently ended up being gobbled up by these two with the end result that we continue to pay a steep price for their lousy service.
And over the issue of national security purportedly posed by DITO due to its foreign Chinese partner, China Telecom, what of it?
Globe is partnered with Singapore and Smart with Indonesia, are they not foreigners too? Is China also not part of Asia?
Do Smart and Globe also have telecom towers inside our military camps? Yes, they have.
But why did we never hear any noise of concern regarding the threat to national security their towers pose?
And why is it that some quarters always cry, ‘Wolf!’ whenever ‘China’ enters the discussion but are eerily silent whenever the issue of US imperialist intervention in our domestic affairs is mentioned?
If the fear of “foreign spying” by China is the cause of agitation of some among us, then they got it all wrong. They should focus on American global spying.
Is this not why Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia, Julian Assange is now a prisoner in Britain and Chelsea Manning also a prisoner in America?
Are they not in the tight fix that they are now in because they discovered that America is the number one global spy and is using the result of its spying for “regime change” of governments they do not like?
Clearly, all these attacks against DITO are driven by vested interests who want the status quo in our telecom sector to remain. They should be exposed and condemned by any self-respecting Filipino.