House holds closed-door meetings on ABS-CBN franchise renewal bills

The House Committee on Legislative Franchises conducted closed-door meetings on the 11 pending bills renewing the franchise of broadcasting company ABS-CBN, House Committee on Legislative Franchises Chairman Antonio Albano said Tuesday.

“We are having closed-door meetings because we don’t want to be pressured by any side. Remember that it is enshrined in the Constitution that Congress has the sole prerogative, or entity that is tackling all the franchises in the Philippines,” Albano said.

Article 12, Section 11 of Philippine Constitution states that "no franchise, certificate, or any other form of authorization for the operation of a public utility shall be granted except to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens, nor shall such franchise, certificate, or authorization be exclusive in character or for a longer period than fifty years."

The same Constitutional provision also states that "neither shall any such franchise or right be granted except under the condition that it shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal by the Congress when the common good so requires, and that the State shall encourage equity participation in public utilities by the general public.

“Our decision will not be biased in the end… let me assure you [that] when we get the leadership to agree on a set date, we will announce as soon as possible,” Albano added.

Buhay party-list representative Jose “Lito” Atienza on Monday called on House Committee on Legislative Franchises Chairman and Palawan representative Franz Alvarez to resign from his post as panel chair after his committee failed to act on the 11 ABS-CBN franchise renewal bills that had been pending since August 2019.

Also on Monday, Solicitor General Jose Calida filed a quo warranto case seeking to void ABS-CBN's franchise due to alleged violations of the Constitutional ban on foreign ownership and due to the broadcaster allegedly bypassing the authority of the National Telecommunications Communication.

Speaker's call

Albano insisted that the Committee planned to deliberate on the franchise renewal bills soon, but setting that plan in motion ultimately depended on Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.

“We do plan to deliberate on it as soon as possible. Our chairman and leadership of the House has been closely monitoring the events but we also have a lot of things to tackle before we tackle the ABS-CBN franchise. Of course, we submit to the leadership of the House, the chairperson,” Albano said.

Likewise, Albano said that Alvarez should not resign from his post, even describing him as a hard worker despite the 11 pending bills.

“We know for a fact that we have a hardworking chairman, that the chairman is doing his best. This is not the only bill, the only franchise that was filed in the committee. We respect [Atienza] but our opinion is there’s no need for our chairman to resign,” Albano explained.

President Rodrigo Duterte has consistently threatened to move for the closure of ABS-CBN due to the network's supposed failure to air political ads that had been paid for by the Duterte campaign in 2016.

After Calida filed the quo warranto petition, ABS-CBN issued a statement saying that it did not violate any law. — DVM, GMA News