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MANILA - The third major telecommunications company will be announced by December as President Rodrigo Duterte promised in his televised interview on Tuesday, the agency in charge of the process confirmed today.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said that the President's statement today was in line with their plans.

"In our timeline, we will have a third telco by Christmas. So, what the President said is what we have been saying all along," DICT Officer-in-Charge Eliseo Rio said in an interview with ANC.

Rio said that the DICT and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) are already finalizing the terms of reference for the selection process and they expect to release it by October, with the bidding to be held in November.

"May 'deadly deadline' na po na ibinigay sa amin ang Presidente (the President has given us a deadly deadline)," Rio said.

He also defended the NTC from criticism that it was causing delays in the selection process.

The NTC, Rio said, was just being careful by seeking the opinions of the Office of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice to make sure that the selection of the the third telco will not get blocked by a temporary restraining order.