PLDT rates for metered local calls fools the Filipino

60 days to go until PLDT starts charging you P30.00 per hour everytime you call your neighbor! Inquirer news item

Why PLDT's planned metered calls is a making a fool of the Filipino people at a time when developed countries are scrapping metered calls. Go check DSL Technology

Why this country, compared to the rest of the developing countries, will be left behind, intellectually and technologically.

Why we should boycott our monthly payments to PLDT starting on the day metered calls is implemented. Lie number 1 Lie number 2

Why some of those in power who were opposed to the metering scheme are now quiet.

Why PLDT is complaining about profitability when it is the most profitable Philippine company with P7.6 billion in declared profits for 1997alone.

Metered LOCAL Calls will be implemented on the first quarter of the year 2000. You will soon be spending three to ten times more on your telephone bill depending on how you use it. On the Internet? A whopping ten times more or less on your monthly phone bills. It's been there for four years since this was proposed and PLDT has not relented. Boycotting your monthly payments to PLDT seems to be the only peaceful option left for telephone users to do.

PLDT claims that metering will not affect the majority of subscribers. Are we dumb? No need to be a dumb and stupid. Just sample a few of your friends and how they run their businesses and check the already-done metered rates And you’ll know that PLTD is a big liar. Back to top

First of all. PLDT is forgetting that the reason it was awarded exclusive franchise (with another carrier) is because it should be a service and socially oriented company NOT profit oriented. Why? To operate, it uses publicly owned infrastructure and public domain in the form of roads and radio frequencies. You practically own 99.9% of everything PLDT lays it's wires on. Also, each of PLDT subscribers are owners of the company itself, thus, PLDT should be sensitive to social and moral issues.

PLDT wants to have it's cake and eat it too. If the government allows the implementation of metered calls it should scrap exclusive franchises and allow other carriers to compete. Subscribers should be allowed to choose phone companies with better service and rates.

You are a subscriber, therefore you are a stockholder and part owner of PLDT. It is Sad to note however, that as a Filipino corporation, Indonesians control it under the guise of a Hongkong registered company and Filipino PLDT president. Ang Filipino ibinenta ng sariling kababayan!

Users will be paying three to four times more. Internet users? Five times more.

This metering scheme will hit Internet users and providers the most. Second will be business establishments who are dependent on communications to do business and most other businesses. Last but not the least, the poor. The metering scheme is ANTI-SOCIAL. It will put into disadvantage Internet users who are mostly students and intellectuals. The Internet will soon be accessible by only the rich and the powerful. Even the middle class income groups will not be able to afford it's interactive capabilities but will limit them to email. As the financial disparity between the poor and the rich become wider, so would intellect as the internet is today the largest source of information and the only source for many individuals who cannot afford higher education.

Hoy, Erap, sabi mo para sa mahirap ka. Eh di let the have and the have nots equallyhave access to cheap telephone service! Ano bang pinag-gagagawa mo? Nag-i-inuman yata kayong mga advisers mo ng madaling araw? Tandaan mo public servant ka.

In case you are not aware, the government sold government-controlling shares to First Pacific of Hongkong, which is controlled by Salim group of Indonesia, a Suharto owned corporation. Suharto in case you are not aware is the dictator from Indonesia responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians.He was to be over-thrown by the Indonesian people of he did not resign. Much like the Marcoses, his riches came from the blood and sweat of his people. And now it's coming from the Filipino. Aren't we stupid? Will the Filipino be able to prove otherwise? Well, 20years of Marcos rule says we're in for another 20 years of betrayal and deception!

Senators and congressmen who were against the metering scheme of PLDT are now as quiet as a humming bird. Has PLDT ironed out their "other" demands?? Joseph Estrada has more reason to be quiet with the rumored P3 billion in commissions paid with the sale of government shares to the Indonesian dictator Suharto. I challenge the senators, congressmen and the justice department to investigate ill-gotten wealth by the Suhartos from the Indonesian people used to purchase PLDT shares! How can the Philippine government complain to Swiss authorities about Marcos' laundered money when the government allowed laundered money to purchase PLDT shares?? The world is laughing at us!

I wonder about the press people, mainly the Bulletin, who are just as quiet. With the exception of the Inquirer. You all know the nation's leading newspaper licks asses to survive. Why, it was the only newspaper that survived martial law! Does licking asses make you rich enough to buy the Manila Hotel? Yes, if you're not aware, they bought the Manila Hotel.

PLDT has been over charging you with extra charges like "currency adjustment"in the amount of a few hundred pesos. What is there to adjust when the exchange is stable?This amount totals a mind boggling P500,000,000.00 per MONTH that probably goes to people in power of legislation and administration? Long distance calls is one of the world's most expensive.

Tax on taxable income were charged back to subscribers. Yes people, you already paid for VAT and then taxes on PLDT net income were charged to you! Do you now agree that Filipinos are fools?

"Metering per se is not bad as it will decongest the lines."- Commissioner Lichauco

True with obsolete technology but FALSE in today's digital age. The price of digital technology has dropped to unprecedented levels that makes it possible to install a dedicated line to each subscriber and still make a profit.

When the world's developed countries are striving to wire each household with dedicated lines or DSL Technology,which all developed countries offer with fix rate to date, in preparation for the on slaught of the Internet; when developed countries are pushing for extensive use of telecommunications facilities to address traffic congestion on the road that will limit gases that destroy the environment, we have our own telecom commissioner pushing for shared telephone network and expensive metered rates.

If there is any congestion, PLDT should install more trunks by using part of the billions it earns in profits annually.

Ms. Lichauco, I'm not going to ask if former NTC commissioner Kintanar (who approved the metering scheme) was under PLDT's payroll, but are you? Are you for the service of the Filipino people or for the Suharto controlled PLDT?

Ms. Lichauco, of all people, you should be among those who knew that First Pacific will get it's investment back in a matter of a few years.

(In fairness to Undersecretary Lichauco, she has given all out support to users overdo transceivers widely used by the underground economy during the Marcos era due to the acute shortfall of telephone service caused by the monopoly awarded to PLDT. She will always have the respect of many radio groups).
Important Inquirer news update: Undersecrestary Lichauco resigns

With this resignation, I hope Ms. Lichauco will lay before the Filipino people and testify before the courts acts of graft and corruption between goverment officials and PLDT that some say is the reason that she resigned. I take back what I said.

It is easy to blame PLDT for the failure of the Philippine economy to be, at least, at par with our developed Asian neighbors. But, of course, there are too many factors involved in the financial and political arena. Political power begets money, money begets power.

The only congestion that exist is imaginary and purposely created by PLDT specially when it refused to allow 100% interconnection with competitors like BayanTel and Globe Telecom who are much more efficient than PLDT. PLDT will definitely lose in the competition which is why it is flexing it's muscle at an early stage.

PLDT's monopoly is still evidenced by its refusal to interconnect with other carriers giving lousy excuses as "computer malfunction". If they wish to be profit oriented, the telecom industry should be opened to other carriers NOT limited to two in every region! This is a step PLDT will dislike because PLDT will NOT survive the competition! Back to top

The only way payment boycott will be effective is if everyone got involved, get their act together the first day metered calls is implemented. Ignore this and more Internet technology professionals will leave this country, make businesses suffer more, hence, cause more unemployment.

Once metering is actually implemented, you can deny and contest calls originating from your line. A PLDT billing record is not sufficient proof that you made a call and can not be used against you in court because phone lines, much like cellular phones, are not immune from tapping or cloning the case of cellphones. A Supreme Court ruling against PLDT precedes this statement. Back to top

I'm an IT professional who refused to work abroad in spite of the extremely high salary being offered because there is so much to do for the Filipino. I started this boycotting scheme as a lonely battle cry but I now have a few volunteers to help me send this message across.

If this campaign fails (like asking for the moon and the stars, that it will fail because influential groups like PLDTi and pldt.com and politically powerful bodies have failed to permanently stop metering compared to a measly individual like myself)fails to gather more supporters to make PLDT feel the pinch of payment boycott, I will leave this country to work for a foreign country because by then, I will know that Internet technology's information superhighway will have met a dead end in our shorelines.It is easy to conclude that brain drain from this country is the fault of the government.

If anyone of you is willing to help, simply fax this message to someone and email me at this address so I can reply with a thank you note. Your biggest contribution will be to boycott your payments starting on the day of implementation of metered calls. Simply spread this message if you wish to remain anonymous.

Other ways to contribute to this campaign:

1. You may Xerox several copies of the first page of this message as a hand out or small poster to people on the streets or in their cars.

2. If your office is in a tall building, you may print out small versions of the first page and let it fly out of the window.

3. If you think you have a better way of expressing the points raised in this article, please email me an edited copy of this pages. Or to warn me against libelous or scandalous statements on this article, please do so.

4. If your computer is fax capable, it is possible to create a database of fax numbers and let the computer do the faxing.

5. If you have ICQ, please send this URL to Filipinos in your contact list.

6. Send email or send cc to every Filipino you know anywhere around the planet.

7. Create a web site and copy this article or if you have a web site, create a link to this page. (Do not create a link here if your Web site is hosted by a local ISP with no safeguards, a telecom giant is capable of overloading your ISP's bandwidth).

8. Bond size posters on car rear wind shields should attract attention. Do it before local-call metering starts.

9. Your biggest contribution is to boycott payments to PLDT and to spread this message.

If the senate is incapable of action, I suggest new leadership is needed. I move for a vote of no confidence in Senate President Ople's and Joseph Estrada's leadership. Ala Queen Amidala.

Concerned Filipinos, read on and spread this message.