MANILA – The House Committee on Legislative Franchises on Tuesday approved the transfer of controlling interest of Mislatel to Udenna Corp, Chelsea Logistics and China Telecom.

Some members of the committee said the corporate dispute between Mislatel and DigiPhil was not part of the legislative body's responsibility.

Udenna and Chelsea are controlled by tycoon Dennis Uy.

Deliberations were deferred Monday due to some “legal impediments” including Mislatel’s agreement with DigiPhil as its "sole partner" in the utilization of telecom frequencies.

DigiPhil is a unit of Tier1, which, during the bidding proper, joined Mislatel's rival Sear.

“There are parties that are questioning who are supposedly part of the consortium, ang naging position ng ating committee, hindi naman 'yan parte ng tungkulin namin to decide kung sino ba ang dapat niyang maging partner kung sila ba o 'yung kabilang grupo, Quirino Rep. Dakila Cua said during the hearing.

(The position of the committee is that it is not our duty to decide who should partner with who.)

Committee on Legislative Agenda hears anew the transfer, sale, or assignment of the controlling interest of Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company or MIslaTel pic.twitter.com/bLGA0WlxWw

— Jacque Manabat (@jacquemanabat) December 11, 2018

Mislatel President Nicanor Escalante earlier said the agreement with DigiPhil was terminated due to "malicious misrepresentation."

But DigiPhil Chairman Eduardo Millana on Tuesday said its agreement with Mislatel included bidding for the third telco slot.

Department of Information and Communications Technology Eliseo Rio in a separate statement said the "intra-corporate" issue between Mislatel and DigiPhil was outside the jurisdiction of the National Telecommunications Commission.

• House franchise body defers deliberations on Mislatel ownership

-- with a report by Warren De Guzman, ABS-CBN News