House panel to start hearing ABS-CBN 25-year franchise next week —Cayetano

The House committee on legislative franchise will start hearing the bills granting ABS-CBN another 25-year franchise next week, according to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.

Cayetano made the remark after he and the House leadership decided to just consider the proposals to grant a 25-year franchise to the network instead of only a provisional one.

“The deliberations by the committee on legislative franchises will continue during our recess," Cayetano said in a radio interview on Tuesday afternoon.

"They will not stop until they are finished so that no one can say we’re stopping the process or dragging our feet," he added.

Cayetano himself and seven other House leaders had filed House Bill 6732, which grants ABS-CBN a provisional franchise until October 31, 2020.

The measure was already approved on second reading in the plenary on Wednesday last week, the same day it was filed and also approved by the House constituting as the Committee of the Whole.

However, it was reverted to the plenary on Monday afternoon to accommodate additional interpellation and amendments from lawmakers.

Cayetano lamented that the issue on the ABS-CBN franchise has already become "so divisive" and is taking up the time of the House even as there are more pressing matters they need to discuss such as that of COVID-19 response measures.

“That is why we are giving the Legislative Franchises committee full autonomy, while I and other House leaders and members are focusing on bills to fight the COVID-19 and post-lockdown and post-pandemic measures like economic stimulus proposals," he said.

"We will have to multitask,” he added.

Cayetano said the Legislative Franchise committee may hold two to three hearings per week on the ABS-CBN franchise issue.

Witnesses and resource persons may be required to physically appear in the hearing, but following social distancing and other health protocols, he said.

Other hearings may be done though videoconferencing, he added.

The Speaker said the committee will look into at most 10 issues in relation to the ABS-CBN's franchise, including the network’s alleged tax and labor law violations, breaches of the terms and conditions of its previous franchise, and Filipino ownership and foreign citizenship issues.

“I foresee that the hearings would not go beyond July, and by August, after President Duterte’s SONA (State of the Nation Address), we should be ready to decide,” he said.

The President is set to deliver his SONA on July 27 on the opening of the Second Regular Session of the 18th Congress.

The House Committee on Legislative Franchises is set to meet on Wednesday to discuss the details of its hearing schedule.

ABS-CBN went off air on May 5 after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued it a cease and desist order to stop its broadcast operations.

Its franchise expired on May 4.

The broadcast company has since challenged the NTC's order before the Supreme Court.—AOL, GMA News