ABS-CBN franchise issue 'best left to next Congress' —House franchise panel chair

The issue of the franchise renewal of broadcast firm ABS-CBN is best addressed in the next Congress, House committee on legislative franchises chair Franz Alvarez said Thursday.

Alvarez made the remark amid new moves to reopen the deliberations on the ABS-CBN franchise renewal bid, and the assertion of Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor for the House plenary to take up the "unresolved" measure granting the network a provisional franchise.

"Based on my understanding from the House leadership, the ABS-CBN franchise issue is best left to the next Congress," Alvarez said in a statement to reporters.

According to him, the ABS-CBN franchise issue was put to rest when 70 members of his committee voted to reject the network's franchise renewal bid in July last year.

"Under the rules, anyone of the 70 House members who voted against the franchise application could file a motion for reconsideration on behalf of ABS-CBN to challenge the decision of the Committee," he said.

"Unfortunately, there was none, thus the Committee decision has become final," he added.

Deputy Speaker Vilma Santos-Recto earlier filed a fresh measure seeking to renew ABS-CBN's franchise for another 25 years after Senate President Vicente Sotto III made a similar move in the Senate.

Santos-Recto's bill has so far been referred to the House committee on legislative franchises.

Meanwhile, Defensor on Wednesday called on the House plenary to take up measures  that have yet to be acted upon by the chamber, including the committee report for House Bill 6732 which sought to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise until October 31, 2020.

He argued that the committee report has been included in the "unfinished business" of the House for many months already, and the chamber should take this up first before going on with their business for the day.

House Bill 6732 was filed by former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and seven other lawmakers in May last year to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise while the committee on legislative franchises was deliberating on the measures that sought to renew the original franchise of the network for another 25 years.

The measure was approved at the committee level, through the Committee of the Whole, and on second reading on May 13, 2020, eight days after ABS-CBN went off air, but it was later reverted to the plenary to accommodate additional interpellation and amendments from lawmakers.

Cayetano then decided to just consider the proposals to grant a 25-year-franchise to ABS-CBN instead of giving the network a provisional one, leaving House Bill 6732 pending on the floor.

But Alvarez said that since House Bill 6732 sought to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise until October 31, 2020 only, this is already "moot and academic."

Nevertheless, the House decided to take up "unfinished business" on Monday next week, to which Defensor agreed.

In a phone interview with GMA News Online, Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez agreed that the committee report on House Bill 6732 is already "moot and academic."

The Committee on Rules, which prepares the calendar of business for the day, should already remove it from the "unfinished business" to be discussed on Monday, he said.

"I think on Monday morning, the Committee on Rules should be able to remove it in the calendar of business to be distributed in the afternoon. So it should be out already. Kasi moot and academic na," Rodriguez said.

As to the new ABS-CBN franchise bills, Rodriguez said these are currently pending before the Committee on Legislative Franchises.

"We leave it to the Speaker of the House whether this should be taken up now or in the next Congress," he added.

ABS-CBN's franchise lapsed on May 4, 2020. It went off air the following day after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease and desist order.

The NTC's action was contrary to NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba’s statement before the House of Representatives in March that they would issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN to allow its continued broadcast operations "based on equity."

The House only decided to start its deliberations on bills seeking ABS-CBN's franchise renewal last March 10 even though these proposals had been pending in Congress since the beginning of the 18th Congress in July 2019.— AOL/RSJ, GMA News