Recto: Military should not serve as landlord to DITO Telco

Military camps should be off limits to telecommunications operations because the military is not a landlord for anybody, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said Thursday.

Recto issued the statement a day after DITO Telecommunity Corp. said that it will never obtain classified information amid security concerns with its plan to install telecommunication facilities inside military camps.

He noted that given that the Philippines has a land area of 30 million hectares, DITO can build their sites anywhere in this wide expanse of land.

“The government should help them [build their sites], except in the 25 Navy bases and stations, 53 Army bases, and 17 air bases and stations, which should be declared as no-go zones for this company,” Recto said.

“The military is not that big a landlord whose holdings are crucial in a telco’s operations. Why insist on building on military real estate?” he added.

The senator then said that the military, which has been enjoying huge budget allocations for the last 50 years, does not need another way to make money.

“For 50 years now, the military has enjoyed a most-favored agency status, as affirmed in the annual national budget. It does not need a land lease sideline business to augment its budget, moreso if the tenant is 40 percent owned by a state-owned foreign company whose principal allegiance, under the laws of that country, is to its government,” Recto said.

Recto then argued that DITO should instead explore building towers in 50,000 public school and state university campuses, pay rent in cash and in kind such as free broadband for the students, provided that they are compliant with health and environmental rules.

“I am not yet ready to fully subscribe to suspicions that having them inside these national security compounds is like letting in an electronic Trojan horse. But it is better to be safe than sorry,” Recto said.

During a budget hearing at the House of Representatives this week, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he had already inked an agreement with DITO to build facilities and install equipment inside military camps since the Senate did not have any suggestion or complaint when it asked for a copy of the deal.

Lorenzana, during the same budget hearing, also vowed that safeguards will be in place “so that the security of our camps will be maintained.”

Article 2, Section 3 of the Philippine Constitution states that “the Armed Forces of the Philippines is the protector of the people and the State” and as such, it goal is to secure the sovereignty of the State and the integrity of the national territory.—AOL, GMA News