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MANILA, Philippines – Three members of the House of Representatives on Monday filed a resolution seeking an investigation into “possible violations” by media giant ABS-CBN of its legislative franchise.
House Resolution No. 853 directs the House committee on legislative franchises, the panel where the 11 bills pending the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise are pending, to carry out said investigation in aid of the legislation.
In accordance with the resolution presented by Vice President Paolo Duterte, House Allocations President Eric Yap and Cavite 8th District Representative Abraham Tolentino, ABS-CBN Corporation is “operating a pay-per-view channel through signals free in violation of its legislative franchise. “
“By charging the public for its pay-per-view channel Kapamilya Box Office (KBO) through ABS-CBN TV Plus, you have been making huge profits at the expense of the public while using government-provided air frequencies for free,” they said. legislators.
“ABS-CBN Corporation’s operation of a pay-per-view channel through free signals despite the fact that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) ordered it to refrain from doing so and wait for the issuance of the appropriate guidelines, is a violation of the terms of their legislative franchise, “they added.
At a Senate hearing in February, NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Córdoba himself said that ABS-CBN may be slapped with a P200 fine for rape – not a revocation of your franchise – if you actually continued your pay-per-view services even without commission approval.
Lawmakers also noted ABS-CBN’s issuance of Philippine depository receipts (PDRs) to non-Filipino citizens through ABS-CBN Holdings, which they said is a violation of Section 11, Article XVI of the Constitution from 1987.
“The resulting foreign capital in ABS-CBN Corporation also violates the Law of the Republic. No. 7042 (Foreign Investment Law of 1991) amended by Republic Law No. 8179, Executive Order No. 184 (Promulgating the Tenth Negative List of Regular Foreign Investment), and Presidential Decree No. 1018 (Limiting Property and Management of the Media to Citizens of the Philippines and for other purposes), ”added the legislators.
On May 5, the NTC issued a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN, ordering the network to stop its transmission operations since its franchise had already expired.
The cease and desist order came two days after Attorney General José Cálida warned the NTC not to issue a provisional authority to operate ABS-CBN.
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