{"id":246015,"date":"2020-02-24T05:34:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T10:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246015"},"modified":"2020-02-24T05:34:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T10:34:59","slug":"doj-to-deny-ntc-request-for-legal-advice-on-abs-cbn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/24\/doj-to-deny-ntc-request-for-legal-advice-on-abs-cbn\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ to deny NTC request for legal advice on ABS-CBN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Menardo Guevarra in Malaca\u00f1ang\u00a0 TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Justice (DOJ) would be declining the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) request for its legal opinion regarding the continued operations of ABS-CBN Corporation pending the renewal of its franchise in Congress, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Monday.<\/p>\n

In an ambush interview, Guevarra said the legal opinions of the DOJ are only sought by national agencies \u201cin connection with their official work\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if there is a private individual, private company, or private interest involved, like ABS-CBN, we cannot give an opinion because our legal opinion will not be binding on a private company that can actually go to court to have the matter resolved,\u201d he said in the sidelines of the Senate hearing on the network\u2019s supposed franchise violations.<\/p>\n

He said another reason why the DOJ will decline to give a legal opinion is that the issue may be \u201cspeculative\u201d for the department\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows\u00a0kung talagang mag e-expire yang franchise ng ABS-CBN<\/em>\u00a0(if the franchise of ABS-CBN will actually expire) without Congress acting on it,\u201d Guevarra said, as he noted that that the actual expiration of the network\u2019s franchise is May 4 and not March 30, 2020 as originally believed.<\/p>\n

Earlier during the hearing, Guevara pointed out that the date of effectivity of the existing 25-year franchise granted to ABS-CBN on March 30, 1995 shall be 15 days from its publication in at least two newspapers of general publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the franchise was published on April 19, 1995, the franchise will expire on May 4, 2020,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the same hearing, he told senators that it is the DOJ’s position that the government may grant ABS-CBN Corporation a provisional authority to continue operating pending the renewal of its franchise through a concurrent resolution of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress, by concurrent resolution, may authorize the NTC to issue a provisional authority subject to such terms and conditions as the NTC may deem fit,\u201d Guevarra said.<\/p>\n

NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said the regulatory body has deemed it prudent to seek guidance from the DOJ in the case of ABS-CBN because of \u201cserious objections\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, there is even a petition for quo warranto filed by the Solicitor General. We deemed it prudent to seek advice from the DOJ,\u201d Cordoba said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Department of Justice (DOJ) would be declining the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) request for its legal opinion regarding …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":244728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246016,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246015\/revisions\/246016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}