CEBU 5th District Representative Vincent Franco “Duke” Frasco has called out Cebu City Representatives Raul del Mar and Rodrigo Abellanosa for acting out of order when they used the privilege hour to “explicitly lobby” for immediate action on pending measures seeking to renew the ABS-CBN franchise.
In a privilege speech Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Frasco cited Rule 16, Section 122 of the House Rules which does not allow members of the House to use the privilege hour to speak on concerns related to pending measures.
Frasco said the presiding officer should have declared them out of order based on Rule 13, Section 102.
“I humbly submit, that in taking advantage of the Privilege Hour to speak on concerns that are principally related to the subject matter of a measure already pending before a committee, specifically in lobbying before the members of this House the merits of immediate action by the Committee and the House on the ABS-CBN franchise, my two colleagues, with all due respect, have acted out of order,” Frasco said, referring to Del Mar and Abellanosa.
Eleven bills seeking to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise are pending before the House committee on legislative franchises, which is scheduled to begin deliberations on March 10, 2020.
Frasco availed of the privilege hour Wednesday to defend himself after Del Mar called him out for alleged “gross misrepresentation and falsehoods” when he allegedly said the Visayan bloc supports Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
“They denounced a statement I had allegedly made in my capacity as chairman of the Visayas Development Committee, in reply to the media who had quoted a former congressman, purporting to express, the collective stand of the Visayan bloc in regard the ABS-CBN franchise,” he said.
Frasco clarified that the statement he issued was in response to a question from the media regarding a former legislator’s statement.
He did not name the former legislator, but former Negros Occidental congressman Alfredo “Albee” Benitez was earlier quoted in news reports as saying that the Visayan bloc agrees that Congress should immediately act on the bills seeking to renew the ABS-CBN franchise.
Cayetano had repeatedly said that Congress is busy with other more urgent matters and would tackle the pending bills either in May, when Congress resumes after the summer break, or in August, after President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address.
Cayetano, however, announced Wednesday that the House committee on legislative franchises will tackle the bills on March 10.
He said, however, that he did not have a change of heart and that the announcement was made to stress that the committee is accepting position papers from the pro and anti sectors, among others.
Frasco said he was asked to comment on the matter as chairman of the House committee on Visayas development, to which the Visayas representatives belong.
He had said that “my fellow Visayas representatives stand solidly behind Speaker Alan in observing the protocol and courtesy due to our fellow representatives in the committee on franchises before whom the ABS-CBN franchise matter has been presented.”
“My statement being based on truth and fact, it confounds me to no end that as a consequence, my two colleagues should find it necessary to publicly impugn my integrity and reputation before my fellow members of the House, and before the nation, instead of approaching me to clarify and discuss,” Frasco said.
“Mahimo raman gyud tingali na among mahisgutan ug mag sinabtanay raman sad siguro mi, kay pareha raman mi, mga Sugbuanon ug Bisaya (Maybe we can talk about it, we are all Cebuanos after all),” he added. (Jove Moya/SunStar Philippines)