Panel junks new franchise for Manila broadcast giant
MANILA: Voting 70 for and 11 against with 20 inhibitions and one abstention, a powerful commitee in the House of Representatives on Friday junked the application for a new 25-year-franchise for ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’s biggest broadcast network, in what critics said arose from the Duterte administration’s alleged atempt to muzzle the country’s freedoms particularly those of media and speech as guaranteed by the Constitution.
The voting was called by Congressman Franz Alvarez, the chairman of the House of Representatives Commitee on Legislative Franchises, ater receiving a report from the three-member technical working group created to study the issues raised during the public hearings conducted by the panel on ABS-CBN’S new franchise application.
Officials disclosed the report recommended the rejection of the application of the country’s biggest radio-tv network for alleged franchise violations desspite a call from President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte for the administration lawmakers who dominate the commitee to “vote according to their conscience.”
In what is considered as unprecedented and a first in the chamber’s history, Alvarez announced that they would allow ABS-CBN to ask the commitee to reconsider and reverse its decision.
Alvarez also assured that his commitee’s rejection was not final, explaining they would submit it to the House plenary to enable its more than 300 members to have their ultimate say on the issue.
The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos closed down ABS-CBN during his martial law regime while operating its facilities until he was ousted by the Edsa 1 People Power revolution in February 1986 ater which the government later returned the network to its owners — the Lopezes, one of the country’s most powerful, richest and influential clans.
Secretary Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, immediately distanced Malacanang
Palace from the ABS-CBN defeat at the House and insisted that Duterte had no hand in the decision.
The rejection of the franchise came amid widespread protests and warnings from civil society and groups of alleged rampant human rights violations arising from the Anti-terrorism Act of 2020 signed recently by President Duterte.
Meanwhile, the militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1 Movement) assailed Congress for its alleged “tiresome and delaying tactics regarding the future of ABS-CBN, citing alleged determined efforts of the government to close down, the network.