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Philippines gives China-backed telecom firm green light to build cell towers on military bases
- The decision has reopened a debate about national security implications surrounding Dito Telecommunity, which is part-owned by China Telecom
- Dito and others have brushed off the concerns, but the company is facing other issues with it planned roll-out amid the coronavirus pandemic
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A debate over national security has reopened in the Philippines after the country’s defence chief revealed he had signed a contract allowing a mobile phone network powered by a Chinese state telecoms giant to install communications equipment on army bases.
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The Philippine military made a preliminary agreement last year with Dito Telecommunity, a consortium formerly known as Mislatel that is part-owned by China Telecom, to install cell site towers at its camps.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told lawmakers at a budget hearing last Tuesday that he had waited to sign off on the deal so that it could be reviewed by the opposition, “but they came out with nothing … no complaint or recommendations on the contract. It was returned to us”.
He said it was only “fair” to allow Dito to build the cell towers as it is “providing telco services in the provinces where most of our camps are” and wanted to place them inside military facilities “for security and protection”.
Military officials pointed out last year that Globe Telecom and PLDT – the Philippines’ two other major telecoms providers which use equipment from embattled Chinese tech firm Huawei – had already built cell towers in the camps and Dito would only be allowed to build its infrastructure in the same places. Privately owned telecoms companies have been allowed to place cell towers in Philippine military camps for protection against communist insurgents since the mid-1990s, when the industry was first opened up to private players.
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