Dominguez hopes investor confidence remains amid ABS-CBN issue

ABS-CBN’s franchise will expire next month and the Senate is set to hear the broadcast company’s petition to extend its 25-year franchise. (File photo by Patrickroque01 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA — Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has expressed optimism that investor confidence in the Philippines would remain intact if violations cited in the quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN would be proven correct.

Dominguez said the violation cited by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) against the television network “might be a constitutional violation.”

“I think that if that’s proven, the investors will say, ‘Oh these guys have been upholding the rule of law,’” he told journalists Tuesday on the sidelines of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s 2020 tax campaign kick-off at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

The OSG has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to revoke ABS-CBN’s franchise, citing “highly abusive practices.

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The OSG, through Solicitor General Jose Calida, said these practices “have gone unnoticed or were disregarded for years.”

ABS-CBN’s franchise will expire next month and the Senate is set to hear the broadcast company’s petition to extend its 25-year franchise.

Meanwhile, Bureau of Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said ABS-CBN has no tax liabilities to date but its sister company, which he did not identify, has a pending case before the Court of Tax Appeals.