THE Lopez family is not being forced by the administration to sell ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. even if the House of Representatives has rejected the television giant’s bid to have its 25-year franchise renewed, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said yesterday.
“No one should force anyone to sell or buy a property in a democracy,” Cayetano said in a television interview.
Deputy speaker Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte has said the Lopezes should sell ABS-CBN to save its employees from job loss. He said he would support a franchise renewal under a new management, citing the case of Mighty Corp. which paid only P25 billion out of its P37-billion tax due in exchange for selling the company to JTI corporation.
Cayetano said Villafuerte was merely suggesting the sale as a way to save ABS-CBN’s employees from unemployment.
“Ang narinig kong sinabi ni LRay na kung mahal ng Lopezes and empleyado nila, consider na i-sell because para tumuloy-tuloy pa rin intact yung grupo nila (What I heard LRay say is for them to consider selling it so their group will remain intact),” Cayetano said.
Rep. Michael Defensor (Anakalusugan party-list) has said the House of Representatives would again consider granting ABS-CBN a franchise if the Lopez family will give up its shares in the company in favor of the employees.
Cayetano said it remains possible for the technical working group report as well as the committee resolution on the denial of ABS-CBN’s franchise application to be submitted to the plenary even if it is not a regular procedure.
Cayetano said only a favorable action on a franchise renewal application is endorsed to the plenary for approval or denial as a matter of procedure.
He, however, said the plenary can still decide to act on a denied franchise if it wants to because it has the power to do so.
“So is it possible? Yes. Is it regular procedure? No,” said the Speaker after the militant Makabayan bloc asked the House leadership to allow the plenary to decide on the matter.
In a letter to the committee on legislative franchises, the Makabayan bloc said the majority of the 305 members of the House of Representatives “are being deprived of the opportunity to deliberate and even vote on the said issue, in representation of their constituents who were badly affected by the committee decision.”
