PLDT INC. welcomes DITO Telecommunity Corporation’s (DITO) declared openness to amicably settle its unpaid contractual obligation due to PLDT in the amount of P430 Million for services that PLDT continues to deliver so that DITO can in turn provide telco services to its subscribers. This, because PLDT welcomes the amicable settlement of accounts by its debtors even if those debtors are PLDT’s competitors.
But DITO must demonstrate its good faith by ceasing its attempts to confuse the issue and to mislead the public by claiming that PLDT’s efforts to collect on DITO’s debt is somehow an anti-competitive activity or interconnection issue that merits some unspecified “legal process” rather than just DITO’s simple payment of its defaulted P430 million debt.
PLDT will be better placed to assess DITO’s claims of a good faith desire to settle its debt if and when PLDT receives DITO’s (thus far non-existent) settlement proposal. In the meantime, PLDT reserves all of its legal options, including suspension or termination of services, in case DITO does not remedy its material breach by November 4.