ANTICIPATING “protracted legal proceedings,” Sen. Grace Poe moved to elevate the pending franchise application of China-linked Mindanao Islamic Telephone Inc. (Mislatel)—the third telco billed to break up the Smart-Globe duopoly—for plenary decision.

Poe, sitting as chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Services tasked to review franchise applications, confirmed that a House resolution formalizing the sale of the controlling interest of Mislatel to Davao-based businessman Dennis A. Uy has been “moved to the Senate plenary, allowing senators to extensively discuss the issues surrounding the validity of Mislatel’s franchise.”

After presiding over the Public Services Committee hearing on Mislatel’s bid to be granted the franchise as the third telco-service provider, House Concurrent Resolution 23 on Mislatel’s franchise application will now be taken up in plenary to “allow every member [of the Senate] to debate on the issue and pave the way for the measure to be put to a vote.”

Poe said “there are several opinions regarding this. Some legal minds are saying that the Senate can actually cure it by granting the franchise or by accepting the franchise as valid, so I will have to consult the members of the public services committee and let them weigh in on that particular opinion.”

Poe issued the statement after the fourth and final hearing of the public services committee on the third telco application. She noted that the franchise of Mislatel is the only entity that has a legislative franchise in the winning consortium that bagged the country’s third telco slot.

She recalled that “it was put into the spotlight after Senate Minority Leader Franklin [M.] Drilon said the franchise has been deemed ‘ipso facto’ revoked for nonoperation within a year after its franchise was granted in 1998, failure to list in the stock market and failure to get the nod of Congress when it sold 70 percent of its shares in 2015.

Asked whether or not her panel was inclined to recommend the approval of Mislatel’s franchise, Poe said in Filipino: “I do not want to lead on because the issue will be put to a vote. Everyone has an opinion; I am just presenting the issue. I do not want to get ahead of the decision because I do not have a monopoly of what is right. I need to hear all discussions again, reread and restudy.”

The Senate Public Services panel earlier invited legal experts to the hearing, with Poe assuring that their positions will be considered when the Senate committee releases its committee report by next week.

During the panel hearing, senators and resource persons debated whether Mislatel still has a valid franchise and whether courts or Congress has the power to declare when a franchise has been revoked. But Poe pointed out that the Senate may also “cure the defect and questions” surrounding the legality of Mislatel’s franchise.

“We have to cure perhaps the provision not just only Mislatel, but the general franchise provision to make it clear who has the power to ipso facto revoke,” Poe said, even as she warned the consortium that in the event the Senate and Congress as a whole give the green light to the franchise, “it may undergo protracted legal proceedings in case some quarters question the franchise in the courts.”