House to seek arrangement with NTC to keep ABS-CBN on air —Cayetano

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday assured that ABS-CBN will not shut down when its franchise expires on March 30 as Congress will have an arrangement with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to keep the broadcast giant operating.

In an ambush interview in Iba, Zambales, Cayetano said there is no urgency to hold hearings on the bills seeking to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN as it will continue operating even beyond the expiration date of its franchise in March this year.

"Ang ABS-CBN ay hindi magsasara. Meron tayong ugnayan sa NTC na gagawin na habang naghi-hearing kami o habang pending sa amin, hindi magsasara," Cayetano said.

Cayetano said that while he is concerned about the consequences of the possible shutdown of ABS-CBN, there are more urgent measures to deliberate on which have greater impact to the public as a whole.

"Sabi sa akin, 'Sir hindi ba importante sa'yo yung 11,000 jobs ng ABS?' Importante sa akin. Pero importante din sa akin yung daang libong trabaho at milyong trabaho na pwedeng makuha ng Pilipinas kapag yung CITIRA o yung pagiging competitive ng ating bansa sa pagbaba ng corporate income tax ay mapasa natin," he said.

"So anong gusto nilang gawin namin? I-cancel muna namin yung ibang hearing?" he added.

Cayetano said the "best timing" for the hearings on the ABS-CBN franchise bills would be in May or in August, during which lawmakers can continuously deliberate and finish hearing the proposals.

Currently, there are 11 pending measures seeking to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN for another 25 years, but the House Committee on Legislative Franchises has yet to hold a single hearing to deliberate them.

On Wednesday, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines submitted to the House through Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate a list of 200,000 petitions to push the chamber to immediately take up the bills renewing the ABS-CBN franchise.  —LDF, GMA News