Drilon to file concurrent reso allowing ABS-CBN to operate until end of 18th Congress

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon is set to file Wednesday a concurrent resolution allowing ABS-CBN Corporation to operate until the end of the 18th Congress in 2022 or until Congress rejects the application for franchise.

“Iniisip ko ay i-file na rin bukas [Wednesday] ‘yung concurrent resolution para maaksyunan ng Committee on Rules kung payag sila o maisama sa report na gagawin ng Committee on Public Services,” Drilon said in a radio interview.

He said the concurrent resolution will express the sentiment of Congress to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to give a temporary license to operate to ABS-CBN until the “end of this Congress or until Congress rejects the application for franchise.”

The franchise of the television network is to expire in May 2020.

“Kung by the end of this Congress, kung wala pang naipasa na franchise talagang expire na ‘yung kasalukuyang franchise, kasi ‘yung basehan lang noon base sa debate sa Kongreso ay habang nandiyan pa ‘yung current Congress at nakabinbin pa yung amendments, ‘yun ang justification for the continued authority to broadcast,” Drilon explained.

“Kung nagsara na ang Kongreso, there will be doubt as to whether there is a continuing authority. Pero ang sasabihin ko, kung hindi pa ma-approve by the end of this Congress, talagang malaki ang problema natin,” he added.

He further said a concurrent resolution is just the sense of the Congress and unlike a joint resolution which has to be approved by the President.

“Hindi ito batas. Hindi ito kailangang pirmahan ng Pangulo. Temporary lang iyan. Iyan lang po ay sense ng Congress na ipinapaabot sa NTC na sinabi na kung ang Kongreso ang masusunod, dapat magpatuloy ang ABS-CBN,” he said.

He said the NTC can disregard the resolution but he expressed confidence the commission will give merit to it based on the statement issued during the Senate hearing Monday.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Congress may authorize the NTC to allow ABS-CBN to continue operating if its franchise would expire before lawmakers could act on its application for renewal.

"It is therefore respectfully submitted that the Congress, by concurrent resolutions, may authorize the National Telecommunications Commission to issue a provisional authority subject to such terms and conditions as the NTC may deem fit to ABS-CBN and other entities who are similarly situated, authorizing them to continue operating subject to the Congress' eventual disposition of the renewal application," Guevarra said during a Senate hearing. — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News