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| UNDER SIEGE A company vehicle enters the compound of media and entertainment group ABS-CBN Corporation in Quezon City. (Inset) Solicitor General Jose Calida. PHOTOS JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE AND RUY L. MARTINEZ |
Solicitor General Jose Calida filed the quo warranto petition, presenting a stack of supporting documents that was almost two feet high.
The filing of the petition was virtually an anticlimax. Almost a month ago, The Manila Times ran a banner story that the OSG was planning to question ABS-CBN’s franchise before the high court.
The petition was filed weeks before the network’s 25-year franchise expires on March 30 and as a group of lawmakers were putting together 11 measures for its renewal.
“The legislative franchises of ABS-CBN Corp. and its subsidiary, ABS-CBN Convergence Inc. must be revoked. A franchise is a special privilege by the State, and should be restricted only to entities, which faithfully adhere to our Constitution and laws,” Calida said in the 54-page petition.
He said documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission would show that ABS-CBN Corp. sold Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to non-Filipino entities.
ABS-CBN Corp. shares were transferred to ABS Holdings, which later issued PDRs, he said.
Through the transaction, Prudential Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd. acquired 15,656,570 PDRs issued by ABS-CBN Holdings.
In May 2013, Mercury Media Holdings Ltd. purchased PDRs issued by ABS-CBN Corp. from Marathon Asset Management LLP for P2.3 billion.
A month later, a United States-based fund, Capital International Private Equity Fund VI LP,
“acting through Mercury Media Holdings Finance I Ltd., completed the subscription of P2.5 billion worth of PDRs from ABS-CBN,” the petition said.
Media entities must be 100 percent Filipino-owned and their PDRs sold only to Filipinos.
The petition also noted that ABS-CBN Corp. “violated the terms of franchise by offering pay per view channels via TV Plus.”
It alleged that Multi Media Telephony, representing itself as ABS-CBN Convergence, used the franchise to secure a three-year provisional authority to operate.
“The use of ABS-CBN Convergence of the name of Multi Media Telephony is contrary to public policy, as it will only result in confusion and open the door to frauds and evasions and difficulties of administration and supervision,” the OSG said.
Calida asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction “enjoining ABS-CBN Corp. from further operating the KBO Channel and offering it to the general public.”
No hand
President Duterte has repeatedly pledged to stop the broadcast operations of ABS-CBN and expressed anger over its reporting during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
On Monday, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President had no hand in the filing of the petition.
“It’s Congress that has the authority to grant or to renew [franchises], not the President… And, as you know the practice of the President, he does not interfere with the function of Congress,” he added.
Press organizations, however, were quick to denounce the petition.
“It’s a clear indication that this government will do everything it can to shut ABS-CBN down,” said Nonoy Espina, chairman of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).
“If they shut ABS-CBN down, then that’s one big voice lost and it will make it easier for them to start shutting down the other voices that they do not agree with,” he added.
The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) described the Solicitor General’s actions as politically motivated.
“ABS-CBN is a cornerstone of Philippine democracy and the free press for its independent and critical reportage and massive following in the country and abroad,” the Focap statement read. “These moves politically harass and threaten a pillar of the media industry that employs thousands of Filipinos and has played a crucial part in helping fight official corruption and abuse for decades.”
The NUJP said the filing of the petition “proves without a doubt that this government is hell-bent on using all its powers to shut down the broadcast network… So much so that it would risk trampling on Congress’ authority to legislate franchises.”
The University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication said the Calida petition demonstrated the lengths the government could go to silence critical voices in media.
Human Rights Watch Asia Division researcher Carlos Conde said the quo warranto case “has all the indications of political harassment.”
Meanwhile, senators said Congress is mandated to act on the franchise application of ABS-CBN, but this would not prevent the Supreme Court from acting on the quo warranto petition.
“As the Constitution mandates, the Senate’s jurisdiction over franchises remains despite the existence of the petition,” said Sen. Mary Grace Poe, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Services.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he sees no conflict in jurisdictions: “The quo warranto petition is under the original jurisdiction of the Court. Approval or renewal of legislative franchise is the jurisdiction of both houses of Congress.”
“Congress is likewise not prevented from exercising its powers under the same Constitution to act on the application for renewal or a new franchise, which is now pending before the House of Representatives,” he added.
But Sen. Francis Pangilinan bared that the Congress has the duty to give due process to ABS-CBN’s application for franchise renewal.
“Complaints against the network should be formally lodged before Congress to be tackled
in the hearing, giving opportunity for all sides to be heard,” he said.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the quo warranto petition is unnecessary since the franchise of the company would automatically expire by the end of March.
In the House of Representatives, lawmakers supporting the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise took turns in lambasting the Calida petition.
Cagayan de Oro City Second District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said the OSG’s move was unconstitutional since only the Congress can grant franchises.
Rodriguez said the petition violates the principle of separation of powers.
Albay First District Rep. Edcel Lagman called the complaint unwarranted and misplaced.
He claimed that the essence of a quo warranto petition is that the respondent usurps the exercise of a public office, position or franchise to which the respondent is not entitled in the first place. He, however, insisted that ABS-CBN holds a valid congressional franchise.
Deputy House Speaker and Pangasinan Third District Rep. Rose Marie Arenas, considered the petition as a “formal disclosure” of the government’s position on the franchise renewal.
“While it is my view that only Congress holds the sole authority in granting and revoking legislative franchises this petition will, in fact, put forth all the questions and issues surrounding this matter, and hence enable a more enlightened and spirited discourse,” she said.
Laguna Third District Rep. Sol Aragones said the House would continue to hold a hearing on the franchise renewal despite the OSG petition.
“Our main concern are the 11,000 employees who might lose their jobs if the franchise is not renewed, most of them have been my colleagues when I still worked with the network,” the lawmaker added.
Agusan del Norte First District Rep. Lawrence Fortun said the OSG petition would be moot and academic in just a few weeks and believes that the petition might be a “a roundabout way to tell Congress how the administration really feels about ABS-CBN.”
“We still have to see the contents of the quo warranto petition but, offhand, this is quite puzzling since the franchise sought to be revoked is expiring in a month,” he added.
“By the time the Supreme Court sets to resolve the petition after parties have sent in their answers and comments, the current franchise would have already expired and there would be nothing to revoke in the first place. The petition becomes moot and academic. The franchise, however, expires. Effectively, its renewal is denied,” Fortun said.
Bayan Muna said the OSG’s move only shows that it had become a “biased institution” carrying out Duterte’s political vendetta. WITH REINA C. TOLENTINO, ARIC JOHN SY CUA, BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO, JAVIER JOE ISMAEL, FRANZ LEWIN EMBUDO, DIVINA NOVA JOY DELA CRUZ AND AFP
https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/02/11/news/headlines/govt-seeks-to-strip-abs-cbn-franchise/682983/
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