Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (PT&T) stressed that it continued to operate despite being placed under receivership.
“The intent of going through a rehabilitation is not to stop operations, but rather continue to operate in view of getting better. PT&T’s operation has been continuous even during the rehabilitation,” company president and CEO James Velasquez said as he countered the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s claim.
PT&T ceased operating local telephone services and just provided serving broadband internet services without interruption in its assigned region, as well as in the National Capital Region and Central Luzon using its available fiber plant in place.
“The fast moving change in the telecom industry from legacy switched services to IP driven services that can deliver voice, data and video all in the same facility has made it imperative for PT&T to change its business and operating platform. This is a fact that DICT/NTC missed or simply ignored, “ said Jose Luis Santiago, chairman of Retelcom Holdings of the PT&T Group.
The Makati City regional trial court branch 66 had granted PT&T’s request to exit from rehabilitation in August, subject to compliance with certain requirements in line with the approved recovery program.
Under a court-approved 14-year rehabilitation plan, the P8.8-billion debt from its creditors will be paid in redeemable serial preferred shares of PT&T.
PT&T was also earlier authorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise its authorized capital to P15.6 billion.
