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Case
Case
PLDT v NTC
G.R. No. 88404
October 18, 1990
Petitioner assails 2 Orders of public respondent NTC; 1) the order granting private
respondent ETCI provisional authority to install, operate and maintain a Cellular Mobile
Phone System in Metro-Manila, and 2) the order denying reconsideration.
FACTS:
RA No 2090 was enacted granting a franchise, ETCI (formerly known as FACI), to establish radio stations for
domestic and transoceanic telecommunications.
ETCI filed an application with the public respondent for the issuance of a Certificate of Public Convenience
and Necessity (CPCN) to construct, install, establish, operate, and maintain a Cellular Mobile Telephone
System and an Alpha Numeric Paging System in Metro Manila and in the Southern Luzon Regions.
PLDT filed a motion to dismiss the application.
NTC issued the first challenged Order: opining that “public interest, convenience and necessity further
demand a second cellular mobile telephone service provider and finds a prima facie evidence that the
applicant has the capability to provide such.
NTC granted ETCI provided that PLDT and ETCI shall enter into an interconnection agreement.
PLDT filed a motion to set aside the first order which NTC denied. Hence, the second questioned order.
WHEREFORE, the petition is DISMISSED for lack of merit. The TRO is LIFTED
ISSUE: WON the NTC acted without jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction in granting provisional authority to ETCI under the NTC questioned orders.
- The Court finds no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the NTC. What the NTC granted was such a
provisional authority, with a definite expiry period of 18 months unless sooner renewed, and which may be
revoked, amended or revised by the NTC. It is also limited to Metro Manila only. What is more, the main
proceedings are clearly to continue as stated in the NTC Order.
- The decisive considerations are public need, public interest, and the common good. Those were the
overriding factors which motivated NTC in granting provisional authority to ETCI. Article II, Section 24 of
the 1987 Constitution, recognized the vital role of communication and information in nation-building. It
is likewise a State policy to provide the environment for the emergence of communications structures
suitable to the balanced flow of information into, out of, and across the country.