Lawmakers on Wednesday blamed Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano for the closure of ABS-CBN last night.
Buhay partylist Rep. Lito Atienza, in a statement, also challenged Cayetano to immediately act on this problem, saying the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) should not be used as a scapegoat for what Congress failed to do.
“Congress should be ready to vote on this issue, it being the only body authorized to act on this crucial matter,” he said.
“This is definitely a case of bad timing in closing down one of the more, if not the most, effective channels of communication and accurate information, especially in this time of a national health crisis,” Atienza added.
“It is Congress’s fault. I would like to say squarely, it is Speaker Cayetano’s fault. He will have a lot to explain one day. It may not be today, but later on this issue will hound him because he’s the one who didn’t do his job.”
Buhay partylist Rep. Lito Atienza
In a separate interview, the lawmaker also apologized to the public for the “failure of Congress to do its job.”
“It is Congress’s fault. I would like to say squarely, it is Speaker Cayetano’s fault. He will have a lot to explain one day. It may not be today, but later on this issue will hound him because he’s the one who didn’t do his job,” he said.
For his part, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman hit the leadership of Cayetano for not only delaying the hearings on bills seeking the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise, which are all pending before the House Committee on Legislative Franchises.
“The request of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Chairman Franz Alvarez of the committee on legislative franchises to the NTC to grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate after the expiration of its franchise on 04 May 2020, and the explicit undertaking of Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba of NTC during the first and only public hearing on the franchise renewal on 10 March 2020 that the provisional authority will be granted, were all part of a charade,” said Lagman.
ABS-CBN Convergence’s franchise expired on March 17, 2020, while ABS-CBN Corp.’s franchise has ended May 4, 2020, without securing legislative franchises.
Under Section 24, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution, “all appropriation, revenue or tariff bills, bills authorizing increase of the public debt, bills of local application, and private bills shall originate exclusively in the House of Representatives.” A franchise bill is considered a local bill.
Image credits: Alysa Salen/AP/Bullit Marquez
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