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SCANTEL lacked all papers for P50M telephone project – NTC

January 31, 2010

By Lizanilla J. Amarga

The controversial Supplier Contractor and Networking Telecommunications (SCANTEL) has now been recently found guilty and made to pay a total fine of P66,000 for undertaking City Hall’s P50 million Telepono sa Barangay without all the necessary permits in 2003.

In a six-page decision, National Telecommunications Commission (NTC-Manila) commissioners Jaime Fortes, Jr. and deputy commissioner Douglas Micheal Mallillin found SCANTEL as having violated on 17 counts the country’s telecommunication laws.

”Accordingly, the Commission after taking into consideration the compliance and/or explanation of the respondent and the Memorandum Report of the NTC Regional Office No. X, (Cagayan de Oro), the Commission finds respondent SCANTEL liable,” the decision furnished to Gold Star Daily reads.

The NTC-Manila decision stemmed from an administrative complaint slapped by NTC-10 regional director Teodoro Buenavista against SCANTEL in 2008 under Administrative Case No. 2009-067.

Buenavista charged SCANTEL for numerous violations of Republic Act Providing for Regulation of Radio Stations and Radio Communications in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes under Republic Act 3846, as amended, RA 7925 and other rules and regulations governing radio and telecom industry.
SCANTEL was found to have violated the following: supplying telecommunication/radio equipment without the requisite NTC accreditation as telecom/radio communications equipment; eight counts of violations for possession of AIRSPAN WDN without Permit to Purchase / Posses; and eight counts of violations for the installation of radio communications equipment without construction permit.

However, NTC-Manila commissioners exonerated SCANTEL with respect to charges of operating radio communications equipment without permit to operate or radio station license and for operating as Public Calling Office (PCO) without a valid certificate of registration.

“The Commission finds respondent not liable considering that the subject stations are operated by the City Government of Cagayan de Oro and that SCANTEL’s participation was limited to testing and commissioning only,” the NTC decision reads.

The decision added that the City’s authority is based on the approved PCO Certificate of Authority under No. CCAD-033-2004.

The P50 million Telepono sa Barangay is a project undertaken by former city mayor now vice-mayor Vicente Emano in 2003. The project aims to connect 17 hinterland barangays to their urban counterparts via one telephone network.

The project was scored by opposition leaders as well as barangay officials and residents from these recipient hinterland barangays who complained of how the project is still unfinished and that it also fails to live up to what it is worth.

The Commission on Audit (COA) has also raised numerous irregularities on the project over their 2005 and 2006 Annual Audit Reports.

Cagayan de Oro City mayor Constantino Jaraula who took over the reigns from Emano gave SCANTEL a deadline to finish the project or face charges in court during late 2007 and 2008.

Also, Buenavista in 2008 conducted an investigation and technical evaluation on SCANTEL which became the basis of his filing an administrative complaint on the beleaguered telecommunications supplier.

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