PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. (PBBM) said he has no intention to block efforts to grant media network ABS-CBN a franchise, provided that issues raised during hearings at the House of Representatives, which voted against the franchise grant two years ago, are resolved.
The President, in an interview aired over ALLTV on Tuesday, said there are suspicions that the denial of the network’s bid for another 25-year franchise was for “political” reasons.
“I know the suspicion is that it is always because of the political positions that they took against PRRD (former President Duterte). The actual technical reasons are these issues that were found during the hearings in the House,” Marcos said.
“I have not changed my position ever. The question about the ABS-CBN franchise is really about some of the violations, some of the problems that they have encountered during the hearings and in the investigation in the House of Representatives,” he said, without specifying the issues raised.
“As long as those are attended to and those are resolved, there is no reason for the House committee to deny ABS-CBN a franchise,” Marcos added.
The House denial of ABS-CBN’s bid to renew its franchise resulted in the lay-off of thousands of workers at the height of the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic.
Duterte has said that ABS-CBN should first settle its unpaid taxes despite the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s statement that the media network has been regularly paying taxes.
