CAGAYAN de Oro City 2nd District Representative Rufus Rodriguez on Wednesday, May 6, filed a proposed joint resolution granting ABS-CBN Corporation a provisional franchise until June 30, 2022.
A joint resolution, if approved by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President, has the force and effect of a law.
The measure was filed a day after ABS-CBN was forced to stop broadcast operations in compliance with a cease and desist order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
At the same time, Rodriguez filed another bill seeking to renew the television network’s franchise, which expired on May 4, 2020.
Rodriguez said a provisional franchise until 2022 would give Congress enough time to deliberate on the pending bills.
Twelve similar bills seeking to renew the ABS-CBN franchise are pending before the House committee on legislative franchises. The committee started accepting position papers in February 2020.
“Both the House of Representatives and the Senate need additional time to review, assess and determine whether or not ABS-CBN shall be granted a new franchise,” the proposed joint resolution states.
The measure noted that the Bureau of Internal Revenue has certified that ABS-CBN has been regularly paying its taxes. From 2016 to 2019, the network paid a total of P14.398 billion.
The Department of Justice earlier cleared ABS-CBN of allegations over its pay-per-view feature, saying its franchise authorized the company to introduce such a feature under the broad term “commercial purposes”.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has also certified that ABS-CBN has not committed any violations with regards to the constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership.
General labor standards, occupational safety and health standards, and security of tenure have been complied with, the proposed resolution further stated.
ABS-CBN incurred the ire of President Rodrigo Duterte after it failed to air some of the President’s political ads during the 2016 elections. Duterte, however, had accepted the public apology of ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Katigbak.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque assured earlier Wednesday that Duterte was “completely neutral” on the matter and that the decision to grant or deny ABS-CBN’s application for another franchise lies solely with Congress. (MVI/SunStar Philippines)