Aquino concerned over impending merger of Smart, Sun

FORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecija – President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday expressed concern over the impact of the impending merger of Smart Communications and Sun Cellular even as his economic managers continue to study the matter. “We're studying it right now but I am concerned enough to warrant a study," he told reporters after attending the field training and live firing exercises for Balikatan 2011 held here and a dialogue with Filipino soldiers. “There are allegations, amongst them from Globe and siyempre [of course] we want to ensure that there is a level playing field, marami ring technical aspects doon, yung sa bandwidth, frequency etc. [and there are a lot of technical aspects to be considered too, such as bandwith, frequency etc.]," he added. The President admitted that since he is not an expert on the issue, he will allow “people more competent than I, as far as the technical aspects are concerned," to study the matter. “We will be sitting down soon with the economic team, with the Department of Justice, with the technical people of National Telecommunications Commission and as of now, [the merger of Sun and Smart is being reviewed]," Mr Aquino said. In a separate interview, Ricky Carandang, head of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, said some of the economic managers have raised concerns about the impact that the merger might have on on the price of the service that consumers pay for their cellphone services. “There have been concerns about the impact that that will have on the structure of the market, whether that will become more or less free—may mga ganoong klaseng usapan ngayon sa loob ng economic cluster [there are these discussions now within the economic cluster]," he said. He said Malacañang is not in the position to intervene at this point. “We do not want to interfere in the market. Ayaw natin makialam sa pribadong sektor pero [We don’t want to interfere with the private sector, but] we will be concerned if this will have an impact on the consumers," he said. He said the economic managers will study “whether or not there would be some basis for us to involve ourselves or to at least express some kind of opinion on it." Even before the President expressed his concerns, the Secretary of Trade was already looking into the possible implications of the merger, Carandang added. Some quarters had earlier raised concerns that PLDT’s investment into Digitel would lead to the end of Sun’s special prepaid bargain or unlimited-text-and-voice (“unli") offers to consumers. PLDT owns Smart while Digitel owns Sun.—Amita O. Legaspi/JV, GMA News