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MANILA, Philippines – Thirteen senators on Monday introduced a bill to grant media giant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise to operate until June 30, 2022, while its regular franchise is under deliberation in Congress.
The authors of the bill are Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators Lito Lapid, Richard Gordon, Sherwin Gatchalian, Joel Villanueva, Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Bong Revilla, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Manny Pacquiao.
The Senate also adopted the resolution presented last week calling on the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to reconsider its cease and desist order (CDO) that caused the network to close.
The ABS-CBN franchise expired on May 4.
In the provisional franchise filed Monday, senators cited the biggest economic impact of shutting down the network, one of the largest in the country.
“Ceasing its operation would jeopardize the Philippine advertising industry which has historically invested up to 75 percent of its P151 billion business in television,” they said.
They also said that ABS-CBN has been one of the largest taxpayers in the country, contributing P70.5 billion between 2003 and 2020.
Its closure would also lead to job loss, as the network employs about 11,000 employees.
The House of Representatives legislative franchise committee, meanwhile, threatened to slap NTC officials with contempt for their “undue interference” and “disobedience” of Congress’ authority by shutting ABS-CBN against previous directives.
In an order dated May 5, Palawan’s representative, Franz Alvarez, gave the NTC 72 hours to explain its issuance of a CDO against the media giant despite its previous commitment to wait for Congress to grant or reject the ABS-CBN renewal request. The order was directed at NTC officials.
Supreme Court justices are expected to discuss ABS-CBN’s request for a temporary restraining order against the NTC during its next full court session on May 19, according to court experts.
In an unexpected move, President Duterte’s son, Vice President and Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte called on Monday for a House investigation into ABS-CBN’s “possible violations” of the terms of his expired franchise , particularly its pay-per-view business. INQ
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