NTC may provide provisional authority to ABS-CBN, senators reiterate

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) may issue the ABS-CBN Corporation a provisional authority to operate, several senators reiterated as the 25-year franchise of the media network lapses on Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said it is not the first time that the NTC will be giving out such a permit.

He also questioned Solicitor General Jose Calida's warning to commissioners of the NTC that they could face Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act charges should they issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN.

"The grant of a franchise is a sovereign power granted in Congress. Congress already wrote to the NTC. What power does the Solicitor General have to contradict the body that acts as the repository of the sovereign power?" Drilon said.

"The OSG cannot say that an act of the legislative or an agency of the executive branch is illegal. That is for the Courts to decide," he added.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto also said the matter has already been discussed by lawmakers.

"That issue has been settled during our hearings. I expect the NTC to allow [ABS-CBN] to continue to operate until Congress makes a final decision regarding franchise within this Congress," Recto said.

The Department of Justice, for its part, maintained that there is enough basis to allow broadcast companies to continue operating while awaiting the renewal of their franchise.

Senator Sonny Angara said he also counts on this opinion of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.

"Congress has expressed the same opinion and it has support in past legislative and executive practice," he added.

Senator Panfilo Lacson likewise reiterated that the NTC already said it would be guided by the DOJ's legal opinion.

He, nonetheless, said the case of ABS-CBN could be a "good test case" for the Supreme Court to rule on.

"While a franchise renewal or approval rests on the Congress by way of legislation, subject to the concurrence or veto by the president, an extension of the existing franchise by way of a joint or separate resolutions adopted by either or both houses of Congress has no existing jurisprudence as far as I know," he said.

Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri also said he sees no reason why the NTC should not issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN.

Before the Congress went on recess in March, the Senate adopted a simple resolution seeking the grant of the said permit for ABS-CBN to continue operations.

The House of Representatives, on the other hand, also wrote a letter to the NTC to allow the continued operations of the network pending the decision of the Congress on its franchise renewal application.

At least 11 bills seeking ABS-CBN franchise renewal for another 25 years had been filed before the House Committee on Legislative Franchises since August 2019. The panel conducted its first hearing on the matter last March 10. — BM, GMA News