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NTC not legally compelled to obey House, Senate on ABS-CBN provisional permit —Guevarra


Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Friday said Congress' separate issuances regarding the grant of a provisional permit to ABS-CBN are not direct orders that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) must obey.

The House franchise committee has come out with a letter, and the Senate with a resolution, seeking to allow ABS-CBN to continue operations using a provisional authority from the NTC starting May 4, the expiration of its franchise, and until Congress could act on its franchise renewal application.

The House panel's letter has already been questioned before the Supreme Court by a petitioner that argues, among others, that the NTC cannot issue permits to networks without a franchise.

But Guevarra said these issuances "cannot be construed as direct orders of the legislature that the NTC is legally compelled to obey."

"In any event, the DOJ (Department of Justice) welcomes the filing of the petition as it presents a very interesting question of law," he said in a message to reporters.

Last week, the Justice chief told senators that Congress, through a concurrent resolution, may authorize the NTC to grant ABS-CBN and other similarly situated entities a provisional authority to operate. This was also the gist of his "guidance" to the NTC on the matter.

Guevarra earlier said a concurrent resolution from Congress would provide legal basis to an existing practice in which franchise holders are allowed to continue operating if their license expires without Congress having decided their applications for renewal.

Lorenzo Gadon, the lawyer who questioned the House franchise committee's letter to the NTC, said Congress should tackle the pending ABS-CBN franchise renewal bills instead of asking NTC to issue a provisional authority to operate.

He said a franchise, being a law, cannot be replaced with a resolution.

"No one ever said that a resolution can replace a full-fledged franchise law," Guevarra said in response.

"Here we are talking about a vacuum that arises when a franchise expires and the Congress has yet to act on the franchise renewal bill," he said. —LDF, GMA News

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