Malacañang on Wednesday disputed the stand of lawmakers that ABS-CBN Corp. can continue to operate based on a provisional permit from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo maintained that a concurrent resolution from the Senate and the House of Representatives authorizing the NTC to extend ABS-CBN’s franchise cannot be binding as “it has to be a law.”
Panelo criticized lawmakers, particularly members of the House, for not acting on pending bills seeking to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN network.
“If they can pass a resolution, I cannot understand why they cannot pass a law on either the renewal or grant of a franchise, whether with respect to ABS-CBN or other pending applicants, because the vote needed for a resolution is a majority vote. The vote needed for passing a law is also a majority vote,” Panelo told reporters.
“A resolution cannot be binding. It has to be a law,” the Palace official added.
Panelo, who also serves as President Rodrigo Duterte’s top legal counsel, noted that former chief justice Reynato Puno has shared his opinion that “a resolution cannot be as binding and effective as law.”
“There has been a Supreme Court ruling many years ago that a resolution cannot be as binding and effective as a law so they really need to do their work. They should be accountable to the people. They are supposed to represent their districts so they will have to account to their constituents why they haven’t done anything on this particular subject matter,” he said.
Sen. Mary Grace Poe, who led a hearing on ABS-CBN’s compliance with its franchise, said that an extension of the franchise by the NTC, by authority of the concurrent resolution, was a “cure” should lawmakers lack time to tackle a franchise bill.
“This act of Congress requesting the NTC to extend the franchise is also by authority of Congress that’s why the proposal of having either a joint resolution or concurred resolution could cure it,” she added.
On Wednesday, House Committee on Legislative Franchise Chairman Franz Alvarez formally asked the NTC to grant a provisional authority to the network.
In a letter addressed to NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, the lawmaker said the House
panel had started deliberations on the ABS-CBN franchise. The letter was concurred in by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
“As the House of Representatives has the exclusive original jurisdiction and authority to act on franchise applications, we enjoin you to grant ABS-CBN Corporation a provisional authority to operate effective May 4, 2020 until such time that the House of Representatives/Congress has made a decision on its application,” the letter read.
“We likewise enjoin you to grant ABS-CBN Corporation’s subsidiaries and / or affiliates, whose applications are pending deliberation with the Committee on Legislative Franchises, the same provisional Authoirty. The said subsidiaries and/or affiliates are the following: 1) ABS-CBN Convergence, Inc, 2) Sky Cable Corporation, and 3) Amcara Broadcasting Network, Inc.,” it added.
Also on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon denied the insinuation of Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go that there was politics behind his move seeking the extension of the network’s franchise.
The senator on Wednesday filed concurrent Resolution 6 expressing the sense of Congress that ABS-CBN should continue to operate pending final determination of the renewal of its franchise by the 18th Congress.
Concurrent Resolution 6 also aims to encourage the NTC to issue ABS-CBN provisional authority to operate.
Drilon noted that the 25-year franchise of ABS-CBN, granted under Republic Act 7966, would expire on May 4, 2020.
“I regret the statement of Sen. Bong Go. Being a neophyte senator, he may not be aware of our tradition and our rules,” Drilon said in a chance interview. “Precisely a concurrent resolution does not go through the President because it has no force and effect of a law,” he said.
“It is just a sense of the Senate. There is no politics here. We are not depriving the President of the right to veto or approve,” he added. “The right to veto or approve is in the joint resolution (SJR 11) that we filed, which has the force and effect of a law and which is also filed in the House of Representatives (HoR),” he said.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, an author of one of the 11 bills, filed House Joint Resolution (HJR) 29 on Wednesday that seeks to extend the network’s franchise for one year or until May 4, 2021.
This was separate from HJR 28 filed by Rep. Raul Del Mar last week, which seeks to extend the network’s franchise up to June 30, 2022 or the end of the 18th Congress.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, however, agreed with Puno’s position that ABS-CBN cannot operate without a renewed franchise.
“Since the prevailing rule is no franchise, no operation, inveigling ABS-CBN to continue operation with an expired franchise is pushing it to a legal limbo fraught with possible lawsuits as such continued operation is against jurisprudence,” Lagman said. WITH DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ
https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/02/27/news/headlines/franchise-resolutions-not-binding-palace/696869/
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