{"id":254855,"date":"2020-05-14T07:09:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T11:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=254855"},"modified":"2020-05-14T07:11:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T11:11:48","slug":"house-nod-on-abs-cbns-provisional-franchise-best-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/14\/house-nod-on-abs-cbns-provisional-franchise-best-move\/","title":{"rendered":"House nod on ABS-CBN\u2019s provisional franchise \u2018best move\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
ABS-CBN went off air the same day the NTC issued the cease and desist order against the local media giant. (File photo by patrickroque001\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday considered as the \u201cbest move\u201d the House of Representatives\u2019 approval of a measure giving ABS-CBN Corp. a provisional franchise for the local media giant to go back on air until October 31 this year.<\/p>\n

This, after congressmen on Wednesday passed on second reading a bill granting ABS-CBN a temporary license to resume its broadcast operations for five months while Congress decides whether the network deserves to get a fresh 25-year franchise.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser aired on state-run PTV-4, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque maintained that only Congress has the power to give ABS-CBN a new franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not only the best move. It\u2019s the only move under the Constitution because it\u2019s very clear\u00a0po na tanging\u00a0Kongreso lang ang pupwedeng mag-grant ng\u00a0<\/em>franchise\u00a0o mag-revoke ng<\/em>\u00a0franchise\u00a0para sa mga<\/em>\u00a0broadcast company (that only Congress can grant or revoke the franchise of broadcast companies),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives approved House Bill (HB) 6732, which seeks to grant ABS-CBN a franchise to construct, install, operate, and maintain radio and television broadcasting stations in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

HB 6732, authored by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and seven other House leaders, intends to give ABS-CBN a provisional franchise that will be valid until Oct. 30, 2020, \u201cunless sooner revoked or cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The franchise bill still needs the concurrence of the Senate.<\/p>\n

The ratified measure from Congress will then be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s office for his signature.<\/p>\n

Roque said Duterte would sign the bill renewing the 25-year franchise to ABS-CBN if there is no reason to reject the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cInaasahan ko naman po na kung wala naman pong<\/em>\u00a0constitutional infirmity,\u00a0pipirmahan po ito ni Presidente dahil ipinarating na rin niya ang mensahe sa mga miyembro ng Kongreso<\/em>, he is neutral, do your constitutional function (We expect the President to sign [the franchise bill] if there is no constitutional infirmity because he already sent a message to members of Congress that he is neutral and they should do their constitutional function),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), in its cease and desist order dated May 5, directed ABS-CBN to halt the broadcast operations of its television and radio stations nationwide after the media network\u2019s legislative franchise expired on May 4.<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN went off air the same day the NTC issued the cease and desist order against the local media giant.<\/p>\n

It asked the Supreme Court on May 7 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.<\/p>\n

It also alleged that the 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Thursday considered as the \u201cbest move\u201d the House of Representatives\u2019 approval of a measure giving ABS-CBN Corp. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":239442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254855","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\/254855","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=254855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254856,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254855\/revisions\/254856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}