Manuel V Pangilinan, chairman of PLDT Inc, has denied the claim of President Rodrigo Duterte that the telecommunications company owed the government P8bn.
Speaking to reporters, Pangilinan said he looked into Duterte’s claim and found that his company, which is controlled by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co Ltd of Indonesia’s Salim Group, owed no debts to the government.
“I don’t know. I checked internally if we owe the government. We don’t know,” Pangilinan said during a chance interview at the sidelines of the opening of the NLEX Harbour Link Segment 10 road in Caloocan City.
“As far as we know. As far as we know, we owe nothing. They pay taxes regularly on a quarter basis and in fact, in advance,” he added.
Pangilinan made the statement after Duterte threatened to shut down PLDT if the telecommunication giant would not set up more trunk lines to accommodate calls to a citizens’ complaint line for reporting corrupt government officials.
“If you see corruption, tell me. Call 8888. Bong, add another trunk line. The present setup can’t accommodate all the calls. It’s always busy. Tell PLDT,” the president said, addressing his former aide Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, now a candidate for senator.
“If not, I’ll shut down their business. Yes, that’s true. I don’t want to brag, but they owe the government P8bn. No president has ever asked for payment,” he added.
Duterte did not say what the P8bn was for, and there was no immediate comment from PLDT on the amount.
In a statement, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said Malacanang was confident that telecommunication giants would do their “very best” to ensure that Filipinos could easily report complaints to the “8888” hotline.
“Given all this, it is clear why the president would be displeased when our countrymen’s efforts to access the 8888 hotline are frustrated,” Panelo said.
“Moving forward, we trust that telecommunications networks that act as crucial access points for the system shall endeavour their very best to improve the capacity and resiliency of the system because at the end of the day, Hotline 8888 is meant to ensure the general welfare of the Filipino people,” he added.
The 24-hour hotline was launched in 2016 to receive complaints from the public about red tape, corruption and other abuses in government offices.
Established by the president through Executive Order 6, the hotline is operated under the supervision of the Civil Service Commission.
Manuel V Pangilinan
