By Mario Casayuran
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said Friday that House of Representatives Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano may have a point about the House having first crack at certain measures, because the 1987 Constitution provides that bills of local application like franchise measures must originate from the House of Representatives.
But Cayetano, according to Lacson, “is wrong in equating it to the Charter change issue, though, since as practiced and for expediency, we conduct committee hearings on tax and budget measures even before the House transmits its approved version of the bill to the Senate.”
Lacson issued the statement as some House members reminded the Senate to honor the traditional inter-parliamentary courtesy between the two legislative chambers by not conducting a public hearing on the petition by ABS-CBN for renewal of their franchise, because its committee has not yet submitted its report on the petition.
As the March 30 termination of the current ABS-CBN franchise approaches, the House committee in charge of the renewal petition has yet to conduct a public hearing, critics pointed out.
Lacson said that what could be considered blatantly violative of the Constitution is if the Senate committee chairperson reports out on the floor the committee report for plenary debates.
“This is something we have not done and will never do,” Lacson said.
“Having said that, what I understand to be tackled by the public services committee are not the bills in connection with the ABS-CBN franchise, but a filed resolution to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the alleged violations of ABS-CBN that is being questioned by the Office of the Solicitor General before the Supreme Court via a quo warranto petition, in which I have earlier expressed reservation out of courtesy to a co-equal branch that has already given due course to the said petition,” he added.
https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/02/21/lacson-senate-hearing-on-abs-cbn-to-tackle-a-resolution-not-franchise-bills/
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