House to begin hearing ABS-CBN franchise renewal on March 10

March 4, 2020

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday said the House committee on legislative franchises will begin consideration of 11 bills seeking to renew the expiring legislative franchise of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

In a press conference, Cayetano said the agenda of the panel chaired by Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez also covers the instruction for the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) to grant provisional authority for ABS-CBN to continue its operations after the May 4 expiration of its franchise.

"I'd just like to announce that Chairman (Franz Alvarez), chairman of the Committee on Legislative Franchise, released a notice today (Wednesday) that on March 10, 2020, in the Belmonte Hall, South Wing Annex, we will be taking up the 11 bills concerning the ABS-CBN Corporation renewal of franchise," Cayetano told reporters in a press conference with House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, Alvarez, Bulacan Rep. Jonathan Sy-Alvarado, and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, the new chairman of the House committee on appropriations.

Cayetano said the committee will allow all stakeholders the chance to present their positions.

"We want to define the issues so I am appealing to those pro and anti, before we reconvene in May all the position papers should be there because the chairman said so," said  Cayetano.

While the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. franchise is said to be expiring on March 30, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told a Senate hearing Monday that it will expire on May 4.

Alvarez assured of fair hearing and told the authors of ABS-CBN franchise renewal that the television network still operate, even if its legislative franchise lapses on March 30. DMS