Abante threatens to propose P1 budget for NTC next year

House Minority Leader Benny Abante Jr. on Tuesday threatened to propose only a one-peso budget for the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for next year if it does not get abolished sooner.

Abante made the remark after he filed a measure seeking to abolish the NTC soon after the commission issued a cease and desist order against broadcast giant ABS-CBN.

In a virtual press conference, Abante maintained his position that the NTC is a "useless" agency.

"I feel that the NTC is a waste of the people's money. Napakaraming bagay na ginawa nila in the past na I believe is not proper, not only on the ABS-CBN thing," he said.

"Kung itutuloy ito sa budget deliberation, yes, I'm going to propose one-peso budget for the NTC," he added.

In an earlier privilege speech, Abante said he had long been thinking of calling for the NTC's abolition even before the commission moved to cease ABS-CBN's broadcast operations.

He said that President Rodrigo Duterte pushed for the entry of a third telco player in the country because the NTC failed to properly look after the telecommunications sector, and that the Department of Information and Communications Technology was created because the NTC failed to do its duties.

"Our NTC, supposedly in charge of regulating and promoting the telecommunications industry has turned out to be one of the most inept and useless agencies whose only relevance lies in being another model for sheer wastage of taxpayer money," he said.

"Its failure all these years to invoke sanctions against the companies poorly serving the people’s telecommunications needs is a perfect reason to abolish it already," he added.

But NTC's issuance of a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN, Abante said, is already a "slap in the face of Congress and an outright act of defiance,"

The commission had committed to the House Committee on Legislative Franchises during its March 10 hearing that it would grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise.

However, no provisional authority was issued and the NTC instead ordered ABS-CBN on Tuesday to cease its broadcast operations.

"Ang ginawang ito ng NTC ay hindi maaaring palampasin ng Kongreso. This is an open defiance and an insult to Congress," Abante said.

"The NTC should be abolished and its functions and powers be transferred to the DICT where it can be better exercised and hopefully be more responsive to the needs of our changing times," he added.

The House franchise panel on Monday sent a show cause order to NTC officials to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for issuing a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN.

The NTC officials have 72 hours from receipt of the show cause order to respond.

As of Tuesday, the House of Representatives has yet to announce a schedule for the hearings on the ABS-CBN franchise issue. — BM, GMA News