THE Senate and the House of Representatives were asked Wednesday to adopt a Concurrent Resolution expressing the sense of lawmakers that ABS-CBN broadcasting corporation be allowed to operate under the terms of its existing franchise pending final determination of its renewal by the 18th Congress.
Introduced by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 also asks the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to issue ABS-CBN “the appropriate provisional authority.”
The Resolution cited Republic Act 7966 that earlier granted ABS-CBN a franchise to “construct, install, operate and maintain, for commercial purposes and in the public interest, television and radio broadcasting stations in and throughout the Philippines, through microwave, satellite, or whatever means including the use of any new technologies in television and radio systems, with the corresponding technological auxiliaries or facilities, special broadcast and other broadcast distribution services and relay stations.”
Drilon’s Resolution 6 also acknowledged pertinent provisions of RA 7966 which granted the ABS-CBN franchise for 25 years from effectivity of the existing law or unil May 4, 2020.
It also noted that
“various bills seeking to renew the ABS-CBN franchise reman pending in
Congress.”
At the same time, the Senate Minority Leader reminded fellow lawmakers that only eight session days remain before the franchise of ABS-CBN expires, adding that both the Senate and the House of Representatives need additional time to review and determine whether or not ABS-CBN shall be granted the franchise renewal.
A former Justice Secretary himself, Drilon recalled that the Department of Justice had earlier opined that “the grant of a franchise is an exercise of sovereign power,” adding that under the Constitution that power is vested in Congress.
“By necessary implication, such power of Congress also includes the power to prescribe the rights of the franchisee-applicant pending final determination of the renewal of its franchise by Congress,” said Drilon.
The senator stressed “it is, therefore, respectfully submitted that Congress, by concurrent reolution, may authorize the NTC to issue a provisional authority, subject to such terms and conditions as the NTC may deem fit, to ABS-CBN, and other entities similarly situated, authorizing them to continue operating subject to Congress’s eventual disposition of the renewal applications.”