Shutdown of ABS-CBN operations not a repetition of history -Panelo

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Wednesday rejected comparisons between the closure of ABS-CBN’s operations because of an expired franchise and the shutdown of the broadcast network in 1972 due to martial law.

“I don’t think there’s a repetition of history. When martial law was declared, the then president had the power to close all communications and telecommunications [companies],” he said in an interview on ANC.

“This particular chapter of our history, the President (Rodrigo Duterte) does not have that power. Congress has that power. There is a wheel of a difference between then and now.”

ABS-CBN went off the air on Tuesday night in compliance with the cease and desist order by the National Telecommunications Commission, which ruled that the company could not operate on an expired franchise.

The media giant was also padlocked in 1972 when then-President Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law in response to communist insurgency.

Panelo said the current situation of ABS-CBN was not the fault of the President, who had repeatedly threatened not to renew its franchise over unaired political advertisements in 2016. Duterte has since accepted ABS-CBN's apology and left the fate of its franchise to Congress.

“You cannot put the blame on him. ABS-CBN knew from the very start that its franchise would be expiring, then it should have done its part in asking Congress to do its job. Did it do it?” he asked.

Panelo reiterated that only Congress can give a franchise to a broadcast company. --Virgil Lopez/KBK, GMA News