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Lagman urges repeal of law requiring radio, TV legislative franchises


After the House Committee on Legislative Franchises voted to deny the franchise application of media giant ABS-CBN, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman on Monday called for the repeal of the 89-year-old law that required radio stations, and now television stations as well, to secure a legislative franchise in order to operate.

"In order to insulate press freedom from partisan politics and foreclose any arbitrary denial by legislators of the grant and renewal of legislative franchises to mass media corporations, the Radio Control Act of 1931 must be repealed," Lagman said in a statement.

"The recent controversial and arbitrary rejection of ABS-CBN’s bid for a franchise renewal justifies the repeal of the anachronistic Radio Control Act," he added.

According to Lagman, the 1987 Constitution did not require mass media enterprises to secure a legislative franchise to operate, but the Radio Control Act imposed such a requirement.

He pointed out that mass media corporations are not covered in Article XII, Section 11 of the Constitution which talks about the granting of franchise, certificate, or any form of authorization for the operation of a public utility.

"This provision covers public utilities at least 60% of whose capital is owned by Filipinos. Mass media are not public utilities and are 100% Filipino owned and managed," Lagman said.

Section 11 of Article XVI of the 1987 Constitution, which deals with the ownership and management of mass media, also did not require any legislative franchise for radio and television networks to operate.

Additionally, Lagman said there was no law or jurisprudence that categorically classifies radio and television networks as public utilities considering that the services provided by public utilities are "for hire" or "compensation" while mass media broadcasts are essentially free and subsidized by advertisements.

"Even the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines or RA 7925, which distinguishes a public telecommunications entity from a broadcasting network, only requires a legislative franchise for a telecommunication entity under Section 16 thereof," Lagman said.

"Moreover, RA 7925 defines 'franchise' as 'a privilege conferred upon a telecommunications entity by Congress, authorizing that entity to engage in a certain type of telecommunications service,'" he added.

Lagman argued that the authority to grant certificates of public convenience and necessity to mass media corporations must be maintained with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) even without a prior legislative franchise.

"The NTC has developed adequate expertise in fairly regulating telecommunications and broadcast operations even as any possible abuse of discretion on its part would be readily subject to judicial review unlike acts of the Congress which are difficult to annul," he said.

Deputy Speaker Prospero Pichay earlier filed a measure to amend provisions under RA 7925 to specifically clarify that broadcast companies need to obtain a legislative franchise in order to operate.

Voting 70-11, the House franchise committee on Friday voted to adopt the resolution of the technical working group it created recommending the denial of ABS-CBN's franchise application.

ABS-CBN went off the air on May 5 after the National Telecommunications Commission issued a cease and desist order against the network after its previous franchise expired the day before. — DVM, GMA News

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