{"id":260740,"date":"2020-07-07T08:42:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T12:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=260740"},"modified":"2020-07-07T08:42:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T12:42:33","slug":"palace-to-house-vote-on-abs-cbns-fate-based-on-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/07\/palace-to-house-vote-on-abs-cbns-fate-based-on-conscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace to House: Vote on ABS-CBN\u2019s fate based on \u2018conscience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued the statement, as he maintained that President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s stance on ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise renewal remains \u201cneutral.\u201d (File photo by Judgefloro\/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 House lawmakers can vote on ABS-CBN\u2019s new legislative franchise based on their \u201cconscience,\u201d Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque issued the statement, as he maintained that President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s stance on ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise renewal remains \u201cneutral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAng Presidente naman po, ang sinabi niya<\/em>\u00a0(The President said) the members of Congress can vote according to their conscience\u00a0dahil siya naman po<\/em>\u00a0ay<\/em>\u00a0neutral (because he said he\u2019s neutral),\u201d Roque said in a virtual presser aired on state-run PTV-4.<\/p>\n

The House committees on legislative franchises, and good government and public accountability resumed Monday their 12th hearing on the pending bills seeking the renewal of ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise for another 25 years.<\/p>\n

The House hearings on ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise, which began last month, focused on the citizenship of ABS-CBN chairman emeritus Eugenio Lopez III, the network\u2019s issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts, and the supposed labor and tax violations committed by the embattled media firm.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches urged Duterte to \u201csupport\u201d the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN.<\/p>\n

Roque said the appeal should be directed to lawmakers because they will be the ones to primarily decide on ABS-CBN\u2019s fate before Duterte can give final verdict on the franchise bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI<\/em>-address\u00a0po natin ang<\/em>\u00a0appeal\u00a0sa Kongreso kasi desisyon po iyan ng Kongreso<\/em>\u00a0(Address the appeal to Congress because the decision will come from Congress),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN, upon the directive of the National Telecommunications Communications (NTC), ceased the operations of its television and radio broadcasts on May 5 after its franchise expired on May 4.<\/p>\n

On June 30, the NTC issued another cease and desist order, directing ABS-CBN to stop operating its digital transmission using Amcara Broadcasting Corp.\u2019s Channel 43 and the direct-to-home satellite transmission of its cable firm, Sky Cable Corp.<\/p>\n

Roque reiterated that the Palace would let Congress exercise its independence when it comes to making a decision on ABS-CBN\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespetuhin na lang natin ang kapangyarihan ng mababang kapulungan dahil sa kanila dapat magsimula ang panukalang batas na magre<\/em>-renew\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0franchise\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0ABS-CBN (Let\u2019s respect the lower chamber in exercising its authority because the franchise bill of ABS-CBN will have to come from them),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Senate and the House of Representatives need to first ratify a bill granting new franchise to ABS-CBN.<\/p>\n

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

Malaca\u00f1ang has repeatedly ensured that Duterte would not veto the bill, unless the measure has constitutional infirmity.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 House lawmakers can vote on ABS-CBN\u2019s new legislative franchise based on their \u201cconscience,\u201d Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday. Presidential Spokesperson …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":246102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260740","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\/260740","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260741,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260740\/revisions\/260741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}