WHILE the House of Representatives may hear bills seeking to renew ABS-CBN Corporation’s franchise, it does not mean the application will be approved, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said on Tuesday.
“To those calling for an immediate hearing on this matter, including my colleagues in Congress, let me just be very clear – a hearing does not mean automatic renewal,” Cayetano said in a statement.
Cayetano said as the House re-aligns its priorities to address the effects of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it “remains cognizant of our responsibility in addressing the pending issue of the ABS-CBN franchise.”
He did not say when the House leadership plans to resume committee hearings on the franchise bills.
He continued to assail the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and Solicitor General Jose Calida for the closure of ABS-CBN.
“While the deception of the NTC and the meddling of the Solicitor General adds exigency to the matter, there are still other concerns that need to be resolved,” he said.
The House on Monday gave the NTC 72 hours to explain why it should not be cited in contempt for reneging on its vow last March 10 that it will allow the ABS-CBN to continue operating until Congress has finally disposed of the franchise renewal bills.
ABS-CBN’s franchise expired on May 4. The day before, Calida warned the NTC against issuing a provisional authority to the network. On May 5, the NTC issued a cease and desist order to ABS-CBN.
Calida in February asked the Supreme Court to revoke the franchise for what he said were violations and abuse committed by ABS-CBN.
Cayetano issued the statements a day after Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte and two other House leaders filed a resolution urging the House to investigate ABS-CBN’s alleged violations of its 25-year franchise.
The younger Duterte, who had eyed the speaker’s post in the run-up to the opening of the 18th Congress in July last year, is reportedly against the renewal of the franchise.
Cayetano said the only thing that the franchise hearing guarantees “is that the network will be able to present its case, in the same manner as those who oppose it.”
“The serious concerns that have been raised can no longer be swept under the rug, and it is absolutely necessary for Congress to give this matter all the time and attention it requires,” he said.
Without a series of “proper” hearings, he said, the House “will never be able to put an end to the uncertainties and doubt.”
“Did Congress bow to the pressures of the executive department, or to the interests of a powerful and influential media corporation, or did we do our jobs and fulfill our mandate to the Filipino people?” Cayetano said.
Ultimately, he said “it is only through a fair, impartial, comprehensive, and thorough presentation and appreciation of the evidence that we can clear the air.”
The two other House leaders who co-authored House Resolution No. 853 with the younger Duterte are both in charge of budgeting — a fact which could make lawmakers think twice about voting in favor of the franchise renewal.
They are Cavite Rep. Abraham Tolentino, chair of the committee on accounts which handles the House budget, and ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap, chair of the committee on appropriations, which reviews the proposed annual national budget.
Fourteen House members who are proposing the renewal or grant of a new franchise to ABS-CBN urged the Speaker to facilitate the holding of hearings on their bills.
In a letter to the Speaker last Monday, the bills’ authors and co-authors said they shared Cayetano’s “frustrations with the non-issuance of a provisional authority to the network by the NTC, which commitment was made under oath during the March 10, 2020 meeting of the committee on legislative franchises.”
“Instead, the precipitate May 5 issuance by the NTC of a cease-and-desist has even placed in a bad light, to say the least, the committee in particular and the House of Representatives in general,” they said.
They said the House and its legislative franchises committee “are now being blamed for the shutdown of the network and for being off the air since then, as well as for the displacement of thousands of its employees and workers.”
Some of ABS-CBN’s programs returned on air on Thursday last week through its cable channels and other formats.
“While we take strong exceptions to NTC’s trickery and the Office of the Solicitor General’s interventionist actions, we firmly believe that the House now has the primary duty and responsibility to put an end to the uncertainties and confusion brought by the pendency of the application of renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise,” the lawmakers said.
Those who signed the letter were deputy speakers Vilma Santos-Recto of Batangas, Rose Marie Arenas of Pangasinan, and Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur, and Representatives Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro City), Joy Myra Tambunting (Parañaque), Micaela Violago (Nueva Ecija), Josephine Sato (Occidental Mindoro), Sol Aragones (Laguna), Arlene Brosas (Gabriela), France Castro (Act Teachers), Sarah Jane Elago (Kabataan), and Carlos Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat of Bayan Muna.
Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid has filed a bill which seeks to provide provisional licenses to broadcast networks with pending franchise renewal applications.
Senate Bill 1522 aims to amend Section 1 of Republic Act No. 3846, the law that provides the regulation of radio stations and radio communications in the country by proposing that “a legislative franchise for a radio station of any person, firm, company, association or corporation shall be deemed provisionally renewed upon the valid filing in Congress of a bill seeking for its renewal.”
The proposed amendment further states that the provisional license must be given to the radio station provided that the filing of the bill for its franchise renewal is made before the actual expiration of the legislative franchise, and that the “validity of the provisional renewal shall be until the next adjournment of Congress.”
Lapid’s proposal followed the Senate’s adoption of a resolution urging the NTC to reconsider the cease and desist order on ABS-CBN.
Also last Monday, 13 senators filed a bill that will grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise until the end of the 18th Congress or until June 2022, while the network’s franchise renewal is still pending in Congress. — With Raymond Africa
