NEWS and Entertainment Network Corp. (Newsnet) and NOW Cable, Inc. (NCI) filed cases against several officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City yesterday.
The cases filed were based on allegations of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in relation to their duties under the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018.
In its complaint, Newsnet and NCI alleged that the respondents’ “act of intentionally delaying the processing of permits, licenses and other authorizations” of the Complainant, “with the end goal of disenfranchising complainant…” and ultimately, allegedly awarding it to other favored telecommunications and media companies violates Section 3 (E) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Respondents appear to have interfered and blocked private transactions involving multi-billion pesos by unjustly and unfairly denying/delaying assignment of frequencies, and if they already possess frequencies, by recalling those frequencies, the complaint added.
The NTC have yet to comment on these cases.