{"id":254369,"date":"2020-05-09T07:32:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T11:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=254369"},"modified":"2020-05-09T07:32:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T11:32:13","slug":"palace-leaves-ntcs-fate-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/09\/palace-leaves-ntcs-fate-to-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace leaves NTC\u2019s fate to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The NTC, in its cease and desist order dated May 5, ordered ABS-CBN to stop the operations of its television and radio stations since the broadcast firm no longer has a franchise. (File photo by Elmer B. Domingo\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang said on Saturday the proposed abolition of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will be up to Congress.<\/p>\n

During the Laging Handa program aired on government-owned PTV-4, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Palace would leave the NTC\u2019s fate to Congress.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cIiwan po natin iyan sa lehislatura. Alam niyo naman po iyan, independiente at co-equal branch ng government iyan. Kung talagang ia-abolish naman nila ang NTC, eh ipapatupad naman po iyan ng executive branch ng government<\/em>\u00a0(We will leave it to the legislature. It is an independent and co-equal branch of the government. If NTC will indeed be abolished, the executive branch of government will follow),\u201d Roque said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. urged Congress to abolish the NTC and transfer its powers to the Department of Information and Communications Technology.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Abante made the call after the NTC on Tuesday directed local media giant ABS-CBN Corp. to cease its broadcast operations following the expiration of the network\u2019s franchise on May 4.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The NTC, in its cease and desist order dated May 5, ordered ABS-CBN to stop the operations of its television and radio stations since the broadcast firm no longer has a franchise.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Abante said the NTC\u2019s directive is a \u201cslap in the face of Congress and an outright act of defiance\u201d because the commission earlier ensured lawmakers that it would give ABS-CBN the provisional authority to operate beyond its franchise expiration.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The NTC had made the commitment to Congress after the House of Representatives failed to act on the 11 pending bills seeking the renewal of ABS-CBN\u2019s 25-year congressional franchise.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Roque maintained that only Congress, subject to the approval of President Rodrigo Duterte, can renew the legislative franchise of ABS-CBN.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cMalinaw na malinaw po sa Saliang Batas. Tanging Kongreso lamang po ang pwedeng mag-bigay ng prangkisa. Wala na pong ibang ahensya ng gobyerno na pupwedeng mag-bigay ng ganiyang prangkisa<\/em>\u00a0(The Constitution is very clear. Only Congress can grant a franchise. No government agency can give such franchise),\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Roque said issues surrounding ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise should now be resolved before the Supreme Court (SC).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cIyan po ay sinampa na sa ating Korte Suprema at bibigyan tayo ng kasagutan ng ating hukuman. Hintayin po natin ang sagot ng ating hukuman<\/em>\u00a0(The issue was already raised before the Supreme Court and we will get a response from the court. Let\u2019s wait for the court\u2019s response),\u201d he said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ABS-CBN on Thursday urged SC to nullify and set aside the NTC\u2019s order, claiming that the commission \u201cgravely abused its discretion\u201d when it issued a cease and desist order.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It also argued that NTC\u2019s order \u201cviolates the right of the public to information and curtail freedom of speech, as well as cause serious and irreparable damage on ABS-CBN and thousands of its employees if its implementation is not halted.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang said on Saturday the proposed abolition of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will be up to Congress. During …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":254371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","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\/254369","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=254369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254372,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254369\/revisions\/254372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}