Supreme Court junks Larry Gadon's petition vs. provisional authority for ABS-CBN

The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed lawyer Larry Gadon's petition seeking to prevent the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from provisionally allowing ABS-CBN to operate beyond the expiration of its franchise last month.

Voting unanimously, the court en banc dismissed Gadon's petition due to his lack of legal standing to file the case, the SC's Public Information Office (PIO) announced Tuesday.

The court dismissed the petition without requiring the respondents -- Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, House franchise committee chair Franz Alvarez, and NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba -- to comment.

In February, Cayetano and Alvarez signed a letter enjoining the NTC to issue ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate effective May 4. Gadon challenged this, saying it would amount to extending ABS-CBN's franchise through an "undue delegation of powers."

Gadon admitted he was not directly affected by the issue and said he was filing the petition as a "concerned Filipino citizen and taxpayer."

The NTC ended up not giving ABS-CBN a provisional authority, instead issuing a cease and desist order that forced the network to stop the broadcast operations of dozens of its television and radio stations last May 5.

Gadon filed a motion to withdraw his petition late May, but a source told GMA News Online that the withdrawal "did not matter."

In portions of the resolution released by the SC Public Information Office, the court en banc said Gadon could have been "more circumspect."

"Filing cases in the Supreme Court is a serious affair. It should never be considered except when all the requisites of judicial review are present," the court said.

"Certainly, it should never be contemplated by one who admits not suffering any legal injury. Not only will the overeagerness to file border on the contumacious, it also puts in unnecessary peril the legal arguments of the person or entity that has an actual case," it added.

The SC said Gadon will "benefit from more restraint and a huge dose of humility." The court pointed out that ABS-CBN did file its own petition last May 7.

"The Petitioner is too distant, his interest is too inchoate and speculative, for this Court to responsibly proceed," the SC said.

Thirteen of fourteen sitting justices participated in the voting. One was unable to due to a delayed flight, the SC PIO said.

The SC suspended Gadon for three months last year over his "arrogant, malicious, and insulting" language against a fellow lawyer and his client in 2009. Gadon said he "voluntarily" served the suspension from October 2019 to January 2020.

Gadon was known for moving to impeach former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was eventually ousted by the SC in 2018. He also ran for a Senate seat in lost in the 2019 polls. --KBK, GMA News