Bill seeking non-expiration of franchise with pending renewal bid reaches Senate floor

A bill seeking the non-expiration of legislative franchises with pending applications for renewal reached the Senate floor on Wednesday.

Senate Bill No. 1530 proposes to amend Section 18, Book VII, Chapter 3 of the Revised Administrative Code.

The existing law provides for the non-expiration of a license until a final determination by the granting agency is made, given that an application for renewal has already been filed in a timely manner.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, author of the bill, said franchises granted by Congress must also be covered by this provision to address the "gap in the law" which caused ABS-CBN Corporation's dilemma.

"Today, we seek to rectify a small omission that has been corrected in practice but not in law... We seek to correct this error not only to uphold the right to free speech and expression, but equally important, the right of the people to correct, relevant, timely, and accurate information," Senator Francis Pangilinan, sponsor of the measure, said.

"We also seek to protect and defend the right to decent work of approximately 11,000 employees of the ABS-CBN Corporation and the workers among their suppliers in their business ecosystem, especially amid a pandemic that has already cost our people over two million jobs," he added.

Pangilinan said the proposed measure will make it "incumbent upon the issuing authority to act on an application and avoid situations where silence or inaction could effectively bar the operations of an enterprise."

During the hearing of the bill last week, National Telecommunications Commission commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba agreed that there is a need to amend the law on franchise renewal of public utilities to avoid situations like that of ABS-CBN.

Drilon filed the bill, days after ABS-CBN went off-air last month.

ABS-CBN was issued a cease and desist order after its franchise expired on May 4 while its application for renewal was still pending in Congress.

Bills granting another 25-year franchise to the media network are still being deliberated in the House of Representatives. — BM, GMA News