THE heads of the country’s two primary telecommunications providers last week embarrassed themselves and everyone else by engaging in a public spat, one that was less a “war of words” (as I saw one media outlet describe it) than it was a “catfight,” or perhaps “a duel of wits between unarmed opponents.

The tiff was started by outgoing PLDT Chairman Manny Pangilinan, who used the occasion of his company’s first quarter briefing last Thursday to throw shade at competitor Globe Telecom.