{"id":259339,"date":"2020-06-25T06:48:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T10:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=259339"},"modified":"2020-06-25T06:48:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T10:48:39","slug":"abs-cbn-should-remain-off-air-sans-tro-from-sc-solgen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/25\/abs-cbn-should-remain-off-air-sans-tro-from-sc-solgen\/","title":{"rendered":"ABS-CBN should remain off-air sans TRO from SC: SolGen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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FILE: The ABS-CBN Broadcast Center, overseeing the ELJCC and the Millennium Transmitter. (Photo by\u00a0 User:Hollyckuhno, CC BY 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Solicitor General Jose Calida on Thursday said ABS-CBN Corp. should remain off the air after the Supreme Court (SC) declared moot the quo warranto petition filed by his office against the network.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Calida said his office is yet to receive a copy of the ruling and will consider its options once they receive the same.<\/p>\n

“The OSG has not yet received a copy of the SC decision. Once a copy of the decision has been obtained, the OSG will study the possibility of filing a motion for reconsideration, if necessary, given the constitutional issue on foreign ownership raised in the OSG petition,” it pointed out.<\/p>\n

He, however, said ABS-CBN must remain shut off since the cease and desist order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) remains valid because of an expired franchise.<\/p>\n

“It must be noted that in its Cease and Desist Order (CDO) issued on May 5, 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) directed ABS-CBN to stop operating its television and radio broadcasting stations nationwide absent a valid Congressional Franchise required by law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The network, along with its other channels and radio stations, voluntarily went off the air on the evening of May 5.<\/p>\n

He said the network can resume broadcast operations once the high court issues a temporary restraining order against the NTC’s move.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the SC dismissed the petition for quo warranto filed against ABS-CBN Corp. on the ground of mootness after it voted unanimously to dismiss the OSG’s petition because the network’s franchise of ABS-CBN Corp. has already expired.<\/p>\n

The high court, however, did not touch the issues on the case of ABS-CBN Convergence.<\/p>\n

Calida claimed that ABS-CBN has been broadcasting for a fee, which is beyond the scope of its legislative franchise.<\/p>\n

The OSG has attached the documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would show that ABS-CBN Corp. has committed a violation that Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) must be sold only to Filipinos.<\/p>\n

It has stated that ABS-CBN Corp. shares were transferred to ABS Holdings, which later on issued financial securities in the form of PDRs, which were then issued to both Filipino and non-Filipino nationals.<\/p>\n

In its quo warranto petition, the OSG bared that Singaporean firm Prudential Singapore Holdings Pte. Limited “is a deemed substantial holder of 15,656,570 PDRs” issued by ABS-CBN Holdings.<\/p>\n

It added that Mercury Media Holdings Ltd. also purchased PDRs issued by ABS-CBN Corp. worth PHP2.3 billion.<\/p>\n

Mercury Media Holdings Ltd. is an affiliate of the US-based Capital Group of Companies, one of the world\u2019s largest investment management organizations.<\/p>\n

Under the Constitution, media entities must be 100-percent owned by Filipinos and its PDRs must be sold only to Filipinos.<\/p>\n

The OSG added that ABS-CBN Corp. allegedly “violated the terms of franchise by offering Pay Per View Channels via TV Plus”, which is supposed to be used for free by the public.<\/p>\n

TV Plus is being sold in the market by ABS-CBN for a fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Solicitor General Jose Calida on Thursday said ABS-CBN Corp. should remain off the air after the Supreme Court …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":239115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-benjamin-pulta","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259339","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=259339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":259340,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259339\/revisions\/259340"}],"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=259339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}