House panel to deal with reso extending ABS-CBN franchise to June 2022 —Romualdez

House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez will let the Committee on Legislative Franchises deal with the joint resolution seeking the extension of the ABS-CBN franchise until the end of the 18th Congress on June 30, 2022.

In a statement, Romualdez said the House Committee on Rules, which he chairs, has already dispatched House Joint Resolution (HJR) 28 filed by Cebu City Representative Raul Del Mar and referred it to the legislative franchises panel.

"It is now up to the Committee Chairman and Members to decide on how to dispose of the HJR 28, whether to prioritize it over a slew of ABS-CBN franchise extension bills filed separately by 11 other congressmen," Romualdez said.

"This may further clog up the calendar of the Committee on Franchises since it also has to consider House Resolution 639 filed by Albay Representative Edcel Lagman last January 6," he added.

House legislative franchises panel Franz Alvarez has already announced that the committee is now open to accepting position papers for or against the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise, signaling the start of the proceedings of the chamber.

Romualdez is urging all concerned individuals to submit their position papers on the matter so that the House panel will be able to consider all viewpoints in its deliberations.

"I pray that the stakeholders in this issue give the House Committee on Legislative Franchises enough time to deliberate intelligently on the ABS-CBN franchise extension," he added.

Alvarez has said that once all positions papers have been taken into consideration, the panel can formally start deliberating on the ABS-CBN franchise renewal bills.

This, however, could take place either in May or in August, after President Rodrigo Duterte's State of the Nation Address. — BM, GMA News