{"id":246394,"date":"2020-02-27T19:25:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T00:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246394"},"modified":"2020-02-27T19:25:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T00:25:13","slug":"tackling-abs-cbn-franchise-bills-not-urgent-cayetano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/27\/tackling-abs-cbn-franchise-bills-not-urgent-cayetano\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling ABS-CBN franchise bills not urgent: Cayetano"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Alan Peter Cayetano in Malaca\u00f1an on Oct. 28, 2016 KING RODRIGUEZ\/Presidential Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano finds no urgency in tackling several pending bills renewing the legislative franchise of broadcast network ABS-CBN at the House of Representatives even after President Rodrigo Duterte accepted the firm\u2019s apology over his unaired campaign advertisements in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important but the urgency is not there because\u00a0hindi sila magko<\/em>-close (they won\u2019t be closed down). And we only have six session days,\u201d Cayetano said in an ambush interview on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Cayetano said while there are pressures for the lower chamber to discuss the network\u2019s franchise bills, conducting a hearing would do \u201cmore harm than good\u201d, noting that the Congress\u2019 Lenten break would cut the deliberations short.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiyempre sa<\/em>\u00a0hearing\u00a0papayagan natin ang<\/em>\u00a0ABS management\u00a0mag<\/em>-opening statement. That will take up 20 percent of the hearing. Then next,\u00a0ano ba ang<\/em>\u00a0logical? \u2018Yung mga nag-o-<\/em>object, so assuming\u00a0na sampu ang mag-o-<\/em>object\u00a0o kahit lima lang, baka dalawa o tatlo lang ang marinig namin<\/em>\u00a0then we\u2019ll stop the hearing then\u00a0magbe<\/em>-break kami (During the hearing we would allow the ABS-CBN management to deliver an opening statement. That will take up 20 percent of the hearing. Then next, what is logical? As for those who will object, probably around 10 or five, we would only hear two to three then we\u2019ll stop the hearing then we will go on a break),\u201d Cayetano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWon\u2019t that be unfair\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0(to) ABS-CBN? So the whole break for the next five, six weeks,\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0news\u00a0yung nag<\/em>-object lang,\u00a0ni hindi sila makasagot<\/em>\u00a0(the news would only be about those who objected, and they can\u2019t even give a proper response),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cayetano vowed to conduct fair and serious discussions relating to ABS-CBN’s franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re after here is a fair hearing and serious discussion on the role of media in our democracy, and how we can put rules and regulations that are fair to everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

President Duterte has ensured that he would keep a \u201chealthy distance\u201d from issues surrounding the franchise renewal bid of ABS-CBN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell you, I am not going to interfere.\u00a0Wala talaga ako<\/em>\u00a0(I will not have a hand),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said the \u201ccritical move\u201d is now up to the House of Representatives because it has yet to deliberate first on the pending franchise bills.<\/p>\n

House Committee on Legislative Franchise chair Franz Alvarez has sent a letter to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) enjoining the agency to grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority to continue its operations effective May 4, 2020, until such time that the Congress has made a decision on the network\u2019s application.<\/p>\n

Alvarez and Cayetano informed the NTC that the House Committee on Legislative Franchises has started its preliminary proceedings on ABS-CBN’s application for the renewal of its franchise.<\/p>\n

They noted that the panel has instructed all interested parties to submit their position papers for or against franchise renewal within 60 days from Feb 24, 2020.<\/p>\n

The letter underscored that the House of Representatives has the exclusive original jurisdiction and authority to act on franchise applications.<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise expires on May 4 this year, in case Congress and Duterte do not give consent for the local media giant to proceed with its broadcast operations.<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN\u2019s congressional franchise was granted on Mar. 30, 1995, but only took effect 15 days after its publication — Apr. 19, 1995 — in newspapers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano finds no urgency in tackling several pending bills renewing the legislative franchise of broadcast network …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":238694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246394","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246395,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246394\/revisions\/246395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}