{"id":254846,"date":"2020-05-14T06:50:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T10:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=254846"},"modified":"2020-05-14T06:50:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T10:50:17","slug":"ntc-regrets-failing-to-notify-house-on-cease-order-vs-abs-cbn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/14\/ntc-regrets-failing-to-notify-house-on-cease-order-vs-abs-cbn\/","title":{"rendered":"NTC regrets failing to notify House on cease order vs. ABS-CBN"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe NTC could have thus exercised more openness and prudence under the circumstances and, at the very least, alerted Congress of NTC\u2019s inability based on legal grounds to issue the PA as well as its subsequent decision to issue a CDO when the franchise of ABS-CBN expired,\u201d the NTC officials said. (File photo by Elmer B. Domingo\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Thursday expressed regret for their failure to notify the House leadership of its decision to issue a cease and desist order (CDO) against media giant ABS-CBN following the expiration of its franchise on May 4.<\/p>\n

In a letter addressed to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and House committee on legislative franchises chair Franz Alvarez, the NTC officials said the issuance of a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN was based on their \u201ccollective assessment\u201d of existing laws that there were \u201cinsurmountable obstacles\u201d to grant the network a provisional authority (PA).<\/p>\n

They said that the issuance of a provisional authority would have amounted to an \u201cencroachment\u201d of Congress\u2019 exclusive power to grant, deny, extend, revoke, or modify broadcast franchises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that the licensing power of the NTC may only arise from the necessary delegation of power from Congress through a law. The NTC would thus abide by any law passed by Congress which may extend all telecommunication and broadcasting legislative franchises that expired during the public health emergency if there be any,\u201d the officials said.<\/p>\n

The letter was in response to the show cause order issued by the House Committee on Legislative Franchises against NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios, Deputy Commissioner Delilah Deles, and Legal Branch head Ella Blanca Lopez.<\/p>\n

The order directs NTC officials to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for ordering ABS-CBN to halt its operations despite its earlier commitment to grant the network a provisional authority to operate beyond the franchise expiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NTC could have thus exercised more openness and prudence under the circumstances and, at the very least, alerted Congress of NTC\u2019s inability based on legal grounds to issue the PA as well as its subsequent decision to issue a CDO when the franchise of ABS-CBN expired,\u201d the NTC officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply saddened as well for the inconvenience we may have caused Congress. Again, we express our contriteness and sincere apologies for the ensuing confusion this has caused, not the least because we are in the midst of a crisis,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Officials of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Thursday expressed regret for their failure to notify the House leadership …<\/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-254846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254846","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=254846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254847,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254846\/revisions\/254847"}],"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=254846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}