PLDT, MVP slapped with US class action...

defendants allegedly caused upon them due to violations of federal securities laws, which have yet to be proven.

PLDT and its officials allegedly “misrepresented and failed to disclose the following adverse facts pertaining to the company’s business, operations and prospects, which were known to defendants or recklessly disregarded by them,” the plaintiffs said.

The plaintiffs noted that press releases related to capital expenditure and other spending during the four-year class period did not include the budget snafu until December last year.

The court filing cited numerous reports from 2019 to 2022 to back the claim.

On Dec. 16, 2022, PLDT disclosed that it had incurred billions-worth of budget overrun from 2019 up to last year due to “over orders” related to rollout of 5G and wireless services, among others. The adoption of the fastspeed technology did not take off as expected as shown by the low 5G penetration in the market, the Pangilinan-led telco explained earlier. “As a result of defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the company’s common shares, plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” according to the court filing.

It was previously reported that PLDT American Depository Receipts dropped by more

than 23 percent on Dec. 19 following the budget overrun disclosure. On the same day, PLDT shares traded via the local bourse plummeted by nearly 20 percent to P1,192 each, wiping out around P62 billion in shareholders’ value.

Inquirer reached out to the telco giant for comments about the law suits but have yet to receive a response.

Since the budget debacle has emerged, PLDT said it has been conducting an investigation to get to the bottom of the issue. But it had stressed that no fraudulent activities were uncovered so far.

The telco player is negotiating with vendors to slash their obligations, in addition to seeking for payment deferral, to mitigate the impact of the overspending on their bottom-line.

PLDT is also set to scale down its capital outlays this year. In 2022, it earmarked P85 billion in capital expenditure.

The Pangilinan-led company previously announced plans to borrow about P35 billion to P45 billion in the next two years to fund its capex, dividends and general corporate matters.  clean, but it’s so hard out here,” said Gonzalez, 32, her eyes welling. She turned back to the mirror, finishing her eye makeup. “I want to get help and find a program, but there’s no treatment around here. It seems like nobody cares.”

Across California, homelessness is impossible to escape. Steep increases — Sacramento County saw a 67% rise in its homelessness count from 2019 to 2022 — have so far blunted unprecedented government efforts to fund housing and treatment for people living on the streets. And although some communities have made progress, statewide the gravity of the crisis has deepened.

Encampments have mutated into massive compounds proliferating with hard drugs and untreated mental illness. “Isn’t there supposed to be all this money and housing?” asked Gonzalez’s boyfriend, Joe Guzman, an exconvict who enforces rules for their encampment. Guzman said he has experience in construction but can’t find a job because of a felony drug record.

“Everybody out here is using,” said Guzman, 38, checking their emergency stash of naloxone, an overdose reversal medication, on a brisk November morning. “What else are you going to do, especially when it’s this cold? You have to be numb.”

At its heart, California’s homeless emergency stems from a long-standing shortage of affordable housing. But it is also a public health crisis: The encampments are rife with mental health and addiction disorders. Rats and roaches are endemic, as are stagnant sewage and toxic camp smoke.

Gov. Gavin Newsom brims with frustration — and purpose and new ideas — when confronted with what has become an age-old question for California leaders: Why, for all the money and good intentions poured into helping people out of homelessness, does it look worse today than ever?

Experts on homelessness say California stands out as the state that has done the most in recent years to address the issue, yet communities are struggling to make headway.

“Some people are demoralized,” Newsom said last summer, unveiling a strategy to fund housing for homeless people with mental health and addiction disorders. “Some people have, frankly, given up — given up on us, given up on the prospect that we can ever solve this issue. And I want folks to know that they shouldn’t give up.”

Newsom has muscled historic investments of public funds to combat the crisis, wresting a staggering $18.4 billion in taxpayer money in his first four years for initiatives directly targeting homelessness, a KHN analysis found. And more money is on the way: Spending is projected to grow to $20.5 billion this year.

As he wades into his second term as governor, the stakes are higher. He has signaled his ambitions for national office and speculation abounds that he’s positioning himself for a presidential run. He has cast himself as a vanguard for liberal values, taking out ads to goad the Republican governors of Texas and Florida for their conservative politics and publicly chiding fellow Democrats for being too meek in their response to the nation’s culture wars, including a right-wing assault on abortion and classroom speech on issues of race and gender.

On this national stage, California’s squalid tent cities loom as a hulking political liability, ready-made visuals for opponents’ attack ads. Newsom’s legacy as governor and his path forward in the Democratic Party hinge on his making visible headway on homelessness, an issue that has stalked him since he was elected mayor of San Francisco two decades ago.

And Newsom is recalibrating, injecting a new sternness into his public statements on the topic, something akin to “tough love.” He is enjoining local governments to clear out the unsanctioned encampments that homeless advocates have long defended as a merciful alternative in a state woefully short on housing options. And he is demanding that cities and counties submit aggressive plans outlining how they will reduce homelessness — and by how much — as a precondition for future rounds of funding.

“We have written checks, but we’ve never asked for anything in return,” Newsom told reporters in August. “That has radically changed. We mean business. It’s unacceptable what’s going on in this state.”

Newsom has set in motion a costly, multipronged battle plan, in many ways a grand experiment, attacking homelessness on multiple fronts. Through his brainchild “Project Homekey,” the state has plowed about $4 billion into converting dilapidated hotels and motels into permanent housing with social services. Billions more have been allocated to cities and counties to clear encampments and open additional shelters and supportive housing.

Separate from that, his controversial “CARE Court” plan seeks a novel approach to compelling people languishing on the streets with untreated psychotic disorders to get treatment and housing. It melds the “carrot” of a court-ordered treatment plan, to be provided by local governments, with the “stick” of the prospect of courtordered conservatorship if people deemed a danger to themselves or others refuse to participate.

Newsom allocated $88 million to launch the initiative, and state funding is expected to grow to $215 million annually beginning in 2025.

That’s on top of his CalAIM initiative, which over five years will invest roughly $12 billion into a blitz of health care and social services with the goal of improving health in low-income communities and averting the financial crises that can land people on the streets. This includes direct interventions like emergency housing assistance, as well as unconventional support like help with groceries, money management, and home repairs.

Philip Mangano, a longtime friend of Newsom’s who served as national homelessness czar during the George W. Bush administration, credited Newsom for using his political might to take on a seemingly intractable issue like homelessness after so many administrations ignored it.

“Yes, we are spending a lot of money, and yet the problem is getting worse,” Mangano said. “But look, the largest investment ever made in the history of our country, on homelessness, came from Gavin Newsom. He sees himself as responsible for taking care of the poorest Californians, and homeless people. I’ve known him over 20 years, and there’s no question that’s where his heart is.”

Still, putting the issue front and center is a serious gamble for someone with Newsom’s ambitions.

“Doing nothing puts him in peril, but doing something — he runs the risk of failing,” said Darry

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