What the Proposed NTC-Strengthening Bill (No. 6968) Apparently Lacks

Posted on January 4th, 2010. Written by Rico.

If the summary of representatives Villafuerte (Camarines Sur) and Romualdez (Leyte) is accurate, then their new legislative brainchild—the proposed House Bill 6968—lacks any real teeth.

Not the kind of teeth Villafuerte (below left) and Romualdez (below right) shine for their constituents, mind you.

Here’s a blurb from Villafuerte, summarizing the objectives of Bill 6968:

“As a number of new players have emerged in the past years, it has become imperative for the government to provide a regulatory environment to develop a viable, adequate, efficient, and universal information and communications sector using the best available and affordable technologies.”

Sounds good so far. The proposed bill pushes for:

• “[The NTC's] appropriation may not be reduced below the amount appropriated for the previous year. The appropriation shall be automatically and regularly released after approval.”
• Give the NTC “jurisdiction over all persons and entities engaged in the operation and/or provision of information and communications telecommunications, broadcast, cable TV and other multi-media infrastructure and services.”
• Empower the commission to “establish standards, specifications, measures, guidelines, rules and regulations that will govern the operations of service providers in the areas of information and communications technology, broadcast, cable TV and other multi-media service providers.”
• …and required the NTC “to establish a rigorous training program, to include the setting up of training center, for its personnel to enhance the technical and regulatory competence of the Commission in the monitoring and enforcement of laws, rules regulations of the Commission and compliance thereof.”

Until I read the proposed bill’s text however, my impression is that House Bill 6968 doesn’t effectively tackle the NTC’s (perceived) major shortcoming: lack of enforcement. At least one consumer group has called for the commission’s abolishment, accusing the NTC favoring the big telco players that it’s supposed to regulate.

In other words, before coming out with legislation apparently aimed at regulating the “new players”, shouldn’t Villafuerte and co. take a look at how effectively the NTC regulates established operators?