DAVAO City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte and other three lawmakers proposed a bill to automatically refund postpaid and prepaid telecommunication subscribers affected by service outages.
On May 31, 2023, Duterte together with Rep Eric Yap, Edvic Yap, Jocelyn Tulfo, and Ralph Tulfo proposed to amend the existing Republic Act (RA) No. 7925, also known as the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines.
In the explanatory note of the proposed House Bill no. 8480, it said that RA 7925 was “enacted in pursuit of developing and administering the telecommunications industry in the country, with the mandate of innovating and extending their basic services, including internet connectivity.”
“However, despite the internet being a staple to all transactions, connection, and reliability becomes its most pressing problem as exorbitant costs are being paid by the network’s respective users,” the explanatory note said.
Duterte said that the bill aims to amend the existing law “in order to require public telecommunication entities and internet service providers to institute a mechanism that will enable them to automatically refund or adjust the bills of their postpaid and prepaid subscribers whenever there are service outages and disruptions for an aggregate period of at least twenty-four (24) hours in a month.”
He added that this action would like to ensure that consumers “will only pay for the service that they avail.”
Meanwhile, in 2021, a similar bill was also proposed by Senator Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. which “require internet service providers and public telecommunications entities to provide a pro-rated refund or bill adjustment for both their prepaid and postpaid subscribers who were affected by service outages and interruptions.” KSD