THE Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP)-Cebu Chapter condemns the decision of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in issuing a cease and desist order (CDO) against media network ABS-CBN on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, a day after the expiration of its legislative franchise.
Rev. Fr. Bobby Ebisa, SVD, KBP-Cebu Chapter president and dyRF radio station manager, also questioned the timing of the NTC order.
"We are faced with the Covid-19 pandemic and, of course, we need as much channels of information," he said.
In the current coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Fr. Ebisa said dyAB along with other local radio stations are working on the frontlines in delivering updates.
KBP is the national association of broadcasters in the Philippines while dyAB Radyo Patrol is a radio station of ABS-CBN Corporation in Central Visayas.
The NTC's directive, which is "immediately executory" ordered ABS-CBN to stop its television and radio broadcasting operations after Republic Act (RA) 7966, which granted the company a 25-year franchise, lapsed on May, 4.
It reversed a statement to Congress that it would issue a temporary permit while legislators assess a franchise renewal. Only the House of Representatives can grant or revoke such franchise and its hearings have been delayed, in part by a coronavirus lockdown.
The CDO further states: "Upon the expiration of RA 7966, ABS-CBN no longer has a valid and subsisting congressional franchise as required by Act No. 3846."
"The NTC Regional Offices shall implement the closure order in their respective areas of jurisdiction. After receipt of ABS-CBN's response, the NTC shall schedule the case for hearing at the earliest time after the Enhanced Community Quarantine is lifted by the Government," it said.
According to the KBP, the NTC "has undermined the public's expectation on the continued service of ABS-CBN when it issued the cease and desist order."
Attacks On Abs-Cbn
On Feb. 10, the Office of the Solicitor General filed before the Supreme Court a quo warranto petition seeking to revoke the legislative franchise of ABS-CBN Corporation.
Solicitor General Jose Calida, in the petition, said the network and its subsidiary ABS-CBN Convergence Inc. have been broadcasting for a fee, which is beyond the scope of its legislative franchise.
Meanwhile, it should be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte made several threats to block ABS-CBN's franchise renewal.
In March 2017, the president accused the network of "swindling" him by failing to air his political advertisements during the 2016 campaign season. The following month he said he would file charges of "multiple syndicated estafa" against the network.
In 2018, Duterte said that if it was up to him, he would not give the franchise back and that it would be better to "just sell" the network. Recently, months before ABS-CBN's franchise was about to expire, he said, "I will see to it that you're out."
Media Support
Reacting to the issue, the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) in a statement said: "The shutdown of ABS-CBN broadcast facilities diminishes Filipinos’ sources of information and entertainment and inevitably raises charges or suspicions of repression of the press. That is acutely more destructive in these trying months of national emergency.
"The CCPC urges our leaders to steer back the dispute and debate to where it should have been allowed its regular due course:
"To Congress, where almost a dozen bills seeking ABS-CBN’s franchise have been pending: Do give the broadcast network the fair hearing that it deserves. ABS-CBN began to get it at the Senate inquiry but the process was interrupted although the network was publicly promised full opportunity to be heard at the House, with the assurance that, like other broadcast stations similarly situated in the past, it would continue to operate until the legislative and executive decision is completed.
"To National Telecommunications Commission, which broke its commitment to the legislators and rejected the sense of the Senate and the request of the House committee on franchises: Do reconsider the order of shutdown, keeping in mind the 'guidance' of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevearra who ruled there is 'sufficient equitable basis to allow broadcast entities to continue operations until Congress will act on the bills for renewal.' That, in fact, has been Congress’s and NTC’s practice. Enforcing the law becomes, or is seen as, tyrannical if not enforced with justice.
"In the Supreme Court, where the quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN is pending: In its chamber, both parties, the government and the network, can litigate over the alleged violations that would strip it of its license to operate."
For their part, the Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante UP Cebu and the Alyansa sa mga Mamumuo sa Sugbo-Kilusang Mayo Uno (AMA Sugbo-KMU), in separate statements, called what happened to ABS-CBN "a blatant attack on the free press and democracy."
"Now is not the time to prioritize silencing the press, nor is it the time to take away even more jobs during an economic crisis caused by the spread of Covid-19. The government should prioritize the lives of its people by securing their jobs," AMA Sugbo-KMU chairperson Jaime Paglinawan said. (WBS)