{"id":254057,"date":"2020-05-06T07:05:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T11:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=254057"},"modified":"2020-05-06T07:05:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T11:05:29","slug":"palace-sees-no-reason-for-duterte-to-veto-abs-cbn-franchise-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/06\/palace-sees-no-reason-for-duterte-to-veto-abs-cbn-franchise-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace sees no reason for Duterte to veto ABS-CBN franchise bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: The ABS-CBN Broadcast Center, overseeing the ELJCC and the Millennium Transmitter. (Photo by User:Hollyckuhno, CC BY 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has no reason to veto the bill granting a new 25-year franchise to local media giant ABS-CBN Corp. once it reaches his table, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque guaranteed that Duterte would not reject ABS-CBN\u2019s bid to renew its franchise if the majority of lawmakers sees valid ground to once again allow the network\u2019s broadcast operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa tingin ko, wala naman pong dahilan para i<\/em>-veto\u00a0ng Presidente iyang<\/em>\u00a0ABS-CBN franchise (I think there is no reason for the President to veto [the bill seeking the renewal of] ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise),\u201d Roque said, when quizzed as to how Duterte will act once Congress approves the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN in a radio interview.<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN stopped the operations of its television and radio stations nationwide on Tuesday, or a day after the expiration of its franchise, following the order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).<\/p>\n

The NTC on Tuesday directed ABS-CBN to halt its operations since the local media giant\u2019s legislative franchise already expired on May 4.<\/p>\n

Roque maintained that NTC\u2019s latest decision against ABS-CBN can only be challenged before competent courts.<\/p>\n

He also reiterated that only Congress can decide on whether ABS-CBN deserves to get a fresh franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalaga pong tanging ang Kongreso lang po ang may kapangyarihang mag-desisyon kung magkakaroon muli ng prangkisa ang<\/em>\u00a0ABS-CBN (Only Congress has the power to decide on whether ABS-CBN should be given new franchise),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

The 11 bills seeking the renewal of ABS-CBN\u2019s 25-year franchise remain pending in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

House lawmakers need to first approve a consolidated franchise bill before senators can approve a similar measure, Roque said.<\/p>\n

The bill, once ratified by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, will then be submitted to Duterte\u2019s office for his signature.<\/p>\n

Duterte, who repeatedly lambasted ABS-CBN for its supposed failure to air his 2016 campaign advertisements and for its alleged biased reporting against his administration, was accused of being behind the network\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n

Roque belied such claim, stressing that Duterte had already forgiven ABS-CBN following the apology issued by the broadcast firm\u2019s president and chief executive officer, Carlo Katigbak, in February this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNgayon po, wala na po. Nag-hupa na \u2018yung galit<\/em>\u00a0(Now, he\u2019s okay [with ABS-CBN]. His anger has subsided),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said Duterte was even grateful that ABS-CBN is helping in the country\u2019s fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

He said the only way for ABS-CBN to get another franchise is to secure the nod of the majority of lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng<\/em>\u00a0remedy,\u00a0bukas po ang Kongreso, kumuha po kayong prangkisa sa Kongreso<\/em>\u00a0(The remedy is to get a franchise from Congress since it already resumed its session),\u201d Roque said.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has no reason to veto the bill granting a new 25-year franchise to local media giant …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":239115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254057","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=254057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254058,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254057\/revisions\/254058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}