THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said it issued a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN on Tuesday, May 5, a day after the network’s congressional franchise expired.
The network was given 10 days from receipt of the order to explain why the frequencies assigned to it should not be recalled.
In its order, the NTC directed ABS-CBN to stop operating its various TV and radio broadcasting stations nationwide “absent a valid Congressional Franchise as required by law”.
Republic Act No. 7966, which granted ABS-CBN a 25-year franchise to operate TV and radio broadcasting stations, expired on May 4, 2020.
“Upon the expiration of RA 7966, ABS-CBN no longer has a valid and subsisting congressional franchise as required by Act No. 3846,” the commission said in a statement, referring to the Radio Control Law (Act No. 3846).
This law, as amended, provides that “no person, firm, company, association shall construct, install, establish or operate a radio transmitting station, or a radio receiving station used for commercial purposes, or a radio broadcasting station, without having first obtained a franchise therefore from the Congress of the Philippines.”
NTC regional offices will implement the closure order in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
The commission said it will schedule the case for hearing upon receipt of the ABS-CBN response and “at the earliest time after the enhanced community quarantine is lifted by the government”.
Eleven bills seeking to renew the network’s franchise are pending before the House of Representatives.
On February 26, House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano sent a letter to the NTC requesting that the network be allowed to continue operations after its franchise expires because the House committee on legislative franchises had started discussing the bills.
On March 10, NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba told members of the House committee on legislative franchises that the commission will heed the Department of Justice’s advice to issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN to allow it to continue operations while Congress is deliberating on its application for franchise renewal.
READ: NTC assures ABS-CBN will continue operations
On May 3, the Office of the Solicitor General warned NTC officials that they may face graft and corruption charges if they grant ABS-CBN Corp. and its affiliates a provisional authority to operate.
Solicitor General Jose Calida had insisted that a provisional authority can only be issued to the network after its franchise is renewed. (With Jove Moya/SunStar Philippines)