MANILA, Philippines - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile called on Smart Communications Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc., the country's top 2 telecommunications firms, to comply with the new per-pulse billing scheme of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Instead of charging every 6 seconds by default as ruled by the NTC, Enrile said the 2 companies are "twisting the rules" by requiring customers to enter a prefix to avail of the per-pulse billing system.

"These telcos cannot be allowed to manipulate the industry for their own benefit. They are fooling the people," Enrile said in a statement released Wednesday. He commended Sun Cellular, the country's third-largest mobile phone firm, for complying with the new billing scheme.

The NTC has ordered mobile phone firms to charge voice calls for every 6 seconds instead of the long-implemented per-minute billing system. The new billing scheme took effect last Sunday for calls within the same network.

It is set to be implemented for all calls between mobile phone networks by next Wednesday, December 16.

Both Smart and Globe have explained that they had little room to adjust to the new billing system, saying that the use of prefixes serves as a stopgap measure.

"We had issues with the timing of the announcement because there was little time for us to adjust our system accordingly. We will however comply with the ruling soon. We just have to adjust our system," Globe president and chief executive officer Ernest Cu said in an interview with BusinessWorld.

Enrile, however, stressed that telecommunications firms cannot "keep on hiding behind the cloak of technical difficulties."

"Hanggang kailan na lang natin papayagan ang mga 'yan na magrason ng technical difficulty tuwing may pinapairal kaming batas na mapapakinabangan ng taong bayan? (How long are we going to allow these companies to cite technical difficulties whenever we come up with laws that would benefit the public?)," he said.

Given this, Enrile pushed to strengthen the regulatory powers of the NTC so they can properly regulate the telecommunications industry.

"The NTC should not be afraid to sanction these telcos," he said, adding that non-complying telcos should have their licenses suspended or revoked.

Meanwhile, the NTC said it would first meet with the telcos to find out the reasons for their non-compliance with the new billing system. With a report from BusinessWorld