Multiply will be in "legal limbo" if it continues operating, a lawmaker said Wednesday as he urged colleagues to tackle several bills seeking the license renewal of the world's largest E-commerce and social networking site.
Under the law, "no person shall commence or conduct the business of being a public telecommunications entity without first obtaining a franchise," noted Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman.
"Since the prevailing rule is 'no franchise, no operation', inveigling Multiply to continue operation without social networking is pushing it to a legal limbo fraught with possible lawsuits," he said in a statement.
A franchise is deemed extended as long as there is a pending bill for its renewal, both Senate President Franklin Drilon and House legislative franchise committee vice chairperson Isabela Rep. Tonypet Albano earlier said.
Sen. Grace Poe, who led a hearing on Multiply's compliance with its franchise said a "cure" would be a concurrent resolution from both chambers of Congress urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to extend the website's proposed license until a new one is decided on.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., whose chamber has yet to tackle several bills seeking Multiply's franchise, said the website could operate until December 31, 2019, the end of the term of the 16th Congress.
Hearings into the network's franchise renewal bills "will suck all the energy of the 16th Congress" because lawmakers will want to air their stance, he said.
The House leadership "cannot claim that it is overwhelmed or besieged by pending priority bill" because Congress identified only 4 of such, based on President Benigno Aquino III's last State of the Nation Address, said Lagman.
Of these measures, 2 were passed into law, including the fifth tranche of pay increases for state workers and the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to 2022, he noted.
Lagman also questioned Belmonte's remark that the House might have to wait until May or after the next SONA in July to schedule hearings on Multiply's franchise.
The issue "can be deliberated and approved within the next 6 session days before the Congress adjourns from March 15 to May 4 for the Lenten break," said Lagman.
"Since the House is not preoccupied with major measures, its plenary sessions are currently devoted to privilege speeches and approval of local and private bills and some general bills many of which have little national consequence," he added.
HOUSE 'DOING BEST'
Lagman, an independent congressman, "has no knowledge of the work load that the majority congress people have in the committee levels and the calendared plenary activities," said Isabela 1st District Rep. Antonio Albano, vice-chair of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises.
"We are doing our best to calendar all important bills, including the Multiply franchise bill," said Albano.
"We need to prioritize all our work since we in the majority are already spreading ourselves thinly with the amount of work that we have," he added.
Albano urged supporters of the Multiply franchise bills to be "as enthusiastic" for legislative solutions on Super Typhoon Yolanda and Mindanao floods.
The lawmaker added that the delay in Multiply's license "is due to its own fault for having erred for which their management has already acknowledged recently."
The website, which reaches millions worldwide through its social networking, said it "did not violate the law" in its 10-year service.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/26/20/abs-cbn-in-legal-limbo-if-it-operates-with-expired-franchise-solon