High Court to tackle ABS-CBN cases next week

THE Supreme Court (SC) en banc will decide whether to consolidate the cases involving the ABS-CBN Corp. franchise on May 19.

The members of the court will decide if it is viable to lump all the cases on the network’s franchise renewal into one case, The Manila Times learned from a reliable court insider.

The cases are the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, the petition of lawyer Lorenzo Gadon opposing the renewal of the franchise and ABS-CBN’s own petitions to nullify the cease and desist order (CDO) issued by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that closed down its operations.

The Times source said the ponente (case evaluator and interpreter) in the ABS-CBN versus NTC case is Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas Bernabe, while the quo warranto was given to Associate Justice Amy Lazaro Javier.

In its petition, ABS-CBN cited an “urgent need for a writ of preliminary injunction to prevent grave and irreparable injury to ABS-CBN” and “the filing of a motion for reconsideration [with the NTC] is not an ordinary, speedy or adequate remedy.”

The court en banc shall rule if the ABS-CBN petition will be consolidated with the quo warranto case filed by Calida.

The ABS-CBN also alleged that the NTC abused its discretion when it issued the closure order.

Calida, on the other hand, questioned the legality of the media entity’s ownership.