PLDTI Reacts to Court Dismissal of SMS Case

September 14, 2001

THE PHILIPPINE League for Democratic Telecommunications Inc. (PLDTI) today expressed its dismay over the decision of a Quezon City Regional Trial Court judge early this morning, dismissing the case it filed along with four (4) other individuals against the text-reduction schemes previously announced by the nation’s largest cellular telephone companies on lack of jurisdiction.

"We’re profoundly disappointed by Judge Juanson’s decision. Apparently, the
court has adopted in toto the arguments laid forth by Globe and Smart, without even waiting for the twenty-day (20) period of his own-issued TRO to lapse," said Jonathan Domingo, PLDTI president.

Last August 31, Judge Modesto Juanson issued a twenty-day Temporary Restraining Order halting the implementation of text-reduction plans of Globe
Telecommunications, Smart Communications, Islacom, and Pilipino Telephone Company, which were scheduled to take effect starting September 3, and which would have reduced text allocations for all their customers by 62 to 67%.

The respondents countered by filing a motion for dismissal on the grounds of
lack of jurisdiction, maintaining that if consumers had a complaint, they should have gone to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), rather than the regular courts.

The NTC has said that text is a value-added feature of cellular phone service,
and as such, has been deregulated.

"This decision deals a grave and unjust blow to telecom consumers today," said Atty. Rod Domingo, legal counsel for PLDTI. "We are now left with hardly any legal recourse, because the judge ruled that it is the NTC which has proper jurisdiction, yet the NTC itself has admitted previously a number of times that they have no jurisdiction on the matter. In effect, both tribunals are passing the buck to each other, and we are now left to fend for ourselves. Where is the justice in that?" he added.

The PLDTI lawyer announced that the group will file a motion for reconsideration, and appeal to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court as necessary. "We will exhaust absolutely all legal remedies available to us; we are not giving up the fight," he further stated.

Meanwhile, PLDTI also said they were pursuing other alternatives to stop the
text-cut implementation.

"We are also writing an urgent letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to order the NTC via the DOTC to use its residual powers to stop the abusive cartel of the cellular industry from implementing its illegal and unjust SMS cutbacks. This time, we hope the NTC will hear the clamor of consumers and be more responsive to our rightful needs and demands, as the President herself did in her earlier statement questioning this text-cutback and supporting consumer rights which is even more urgent now, given the lifting of the TRO due to the case's dismissal," the PLDTI chief stated.