MindanaoToday.com | Misortel closes after 7 decades
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A provincial government-operated telephone company, which had served for seven decades subscribers here and raked in millions of revenues annually to the coffers of Misamis Oriental, had stopped operations on Tuesday, February 20.
Engineer Marlon Libago, officer-in-charge of the Misamis Oriental Telephone System Inc. (Misortel), confirmed the closure of Misortel due to financial losses. For years, provincial government subsidy kept Misortel’s day-to-day operations afloat.
He said Misortel has not upgraded its system by acquiring cutting-edge technologies and procured up-to-date equipment to be competitive with the country’s leading telecom giants.
Misortel’s financial status was included in the Commission on Audit (COA) Annual Report on the Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental in 2022. The income of Misortel (Communication Network Fees) dropped by P644,138 because its collection of P2,286,941 that year was lower compared to the P2,931,079 in 2021.
In fact, Misortel posted a net loss of 478,273 in 2022 after P2,765,214 expenses were incurred on line maintenance and equipment repairs that year, the COA document showed. The provincial telephone system posted net incomes of P10,823 in 2021 and P2,129,881 in 2020.
In 2021, Misortel paid its last and final annual loan amortization of P384,347 with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for its P40.480-million 10-year loan that was granted to the provincial government in 2011. It was intended for Misortel to migrate into a digital technology then known as the New Generation Network (NGN).
Misortel started in 1950 with a franchise to operate “a wire or wireless communication system” under the Public Service Commission that was created by virtue of Commonwealth Act No. 146 or Public Service Law. It was the only telephone system in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental then until 2008 when five telephone companies came in.
In 1998, Misortel had 12,439 active telephone lines consisting of 7,541 residential and 4,898 commercial subscribers, including offices of government agencies, in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental.
Libago, in an interview with local Strong Radio station, said they have sent notices to subscribers that telephone landlines would be cut-off on February 20. They may settle their accounts directly to the office of the treasurer at the Provincial Capitol in Cagayan de Oro.
“When I assumed over a year ago, there were already less than a hundred subscribers,” the Misortel head said and that they had lost many subscribers whenever fires occur, mostly in Cagayan de Oro. Restoring the lines, he said, had been Misortel’s financial and personnel constraints.
Libago said Governor Peter Unabia, who chaired the provincial local enterprises management board, had assured all 40 Misortel regular employees affected by the closure will be absorbed by the provincial government.
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