House Deputy Speaker Villafuerte vows fair hearing on ABS-CBN franchise bill

The House of Representatives will exercise fairness in deliberating on bills seeking franchise renewal for ABS-CBN, Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte said Friday.

Villafuerte made the assurance after the House, constituted as Committee of the Whole, approved House Bill 6732 granting ABS-CBN franchise until end of October this year on second reading.

House Bill 6732, authored by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and other House leaders, is different from the at least 11 bills seeking ABS-CBN franchise renewal for another 25 years which remain pending before the House Committee on Legislative Franchises.

“I would like to assure everyone that we will follow due process. We will, as much as possible, hear everybody's side,” Villafuerte said in an ANC interview.

“Kung ma-convince ang members ng Congress na pwede nang desisyunan iyan, dedesisyunan na iyan,”  Villafuerte added.

Congress has only 12 session days left before the sine die adjournment on June 5.

This means that the House would need to approve House Bill 6732 granting ABS-CBN a five-month long franchise on third and final reading by next week for the Senate to have enough time to approve the same before Congress adjourns.

In the event that the Senate does not adopt House’s version of the ABS-CBN franchise bill, a bicameral conference committee composed of the members of the House and Senate would have to be convened to reconcile the conflicting provisio

ABS-CBN went off-air last May 5 after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued cease and desist order against the broadcast network for lack of franchise.

ABS-CBN's franchise lapsed last May 4.

NTC’s action was a turnaround from NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba’s statement before the House of Representatives in March that they will issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN given that the House and the Senate made communications stating they are in favor of such issuance.

The House Committee on Legislative Franchises conducted its first and only hearing on the 11 pending bills seeking ABS-CBN franchise renewal  for 25 years on March 10. —AOL, GMA News