Sotto defends Senate hearing on ABS-CBN

FILE: Senate President Vicente Sotto III at the Senate in Pasay City on Thursday (May 16, 2019). (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

MANILA — Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Friday said there is nothing unconstitutional with the scheduled franchise hearing of ABS-CBN Corporation on Monday (Feb. 24), contrary to the claims of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.

In a statement, Sotto said the hearing to be conducted by the Senate Committee on Public Services will focus on the Senate resolutions filed regarding the network, and “not whether we should approve its franchise or not.”

He also said a committee hearing is not the Senate in itself.

“A committee hearing is not the Senate. A committee report becomes a Senate business. Committee chairpersons are authorized to hear what their committee thinks should be heard. It remains their committee’s business,” Sotto said.

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Francis Pangilinan supported Sotto’s views.

Lacson pointed out that while bills of local application – like franchise measures – must emanate from the House, it has been customary for the Senate to conduct committee hearings on tax and budget measures even before the House has transmitted their approved version of the bill to the Senate.

“What can be considered as blatantly violative of the constitution is if the committee chairperson reports out on the Senate floor for plenary debates the committee report which we have not done and will never do,” Lacson said.

Pangilinan echoed Lacson’s sentiments as he noted that holding parallel hearings in the Senate on bills that should emanate from the House such as the budget bill, tax bills, or franchise measures, is “standard parliamentary practice for decades.”

“Parliamentary practice plus our own rules allow it. Hindi totoong unconstitutional or iligal yung hearing sa Lunes (There’s no truth to the claim that Monday’s hearing is unconstitutional or illegal). What’s important is that the Senate will not approve any committee report until the Lower House comes out with its own recommendation first,” Pangilinan said.