Telecommunication companies are poised to take the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to court for large scale fraud
following the failure of its Church-run Internet service provider,
CBCPNet.
The 500m peso (£6.8m) class suit against the influential bishops'
group is being brought by a group of CBCPNet suppliers and
creditors, including the Philippine Communication Satellite
Corporation (Philcomsat), Bayantel, and the Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Company (PLDT).
CBCPNet closed down this year after only two years of operation,
with losses reportedly running to 190m pesos. Local mailing lists
were rife with stories of shady deals but these could not be
substantiated.
Established in 2000 as an alternative to commercial ISPs, CBCPNet
was supposed to serve as the Church's watchdog against online
pornography, safeguarding children and other users by using
filtering software. The ISP employed monitoring personnel on
24-hour shifts to check new pornographic Web sites to update its
lists. It acquired satellite dishes from Philcomsat as well as a
number of Hewlett-Packard servers and had also received around 200
ISDN and 80 leased lines from both Bayantel and the Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Company (PLDT).
In an interview with Computerworld Philippines before CBCPNet
closed down, Monsignor Pedro Quitorio III, assistant secretary
general of the company, talked about the group's grand plans for
the CBCPNet.
Quitorio said the CBCP planned to build a backbone for each of the
country's 79 dioceses to expand the ISP's reach nationwide, provide
Internet access to the poor and efficiently network its disaster
response in calamity areas.
The group also wanted to load the ISP's servers with farming
technology and information on livelihood projects that could be
accessed by families in remote areas, said Quitorio. It planned to
develop Internet cards, e-mail, Web hosting and Web designing
services as well.
It also hoped to build 1,400 Internet centres nationwide via
parishes and Catholic schools across the Phillipines as well as
expand its network to unserved areas like Bicol, eastern Visayas
and eastern Mindanao.
By April 2001 CBCPNet had entered into an agreement with Microsoft
Philippines to roll out technology training and certification
programs for the parishes and Catholic schools through
implementations of Microsoft's software and volume licensing
program for the ISP.
However the scale of the plans demanded substantial investment and
after two years all funds had been spent.
Telecom companies accuse the CBCP of convincing its creditors and
suppliers such as Philcomsat, Globe Telecoms, PLDT and Bayantel to
put in 327m pesos worth of equipment and services to CBCPNet. The
companies say that CBCP underwrote all deals with CBCPNet and is
now refusing to honour them.