NTC assures ABS-CBN it can continue operating while Congress is still deliberating on renewing franchise

March 10, 2020

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) assured ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. it will continue operating while Congress is deliberating on bills seeking to renew its legislative franchise.

“May I assure this committee that barring a gross violation of its franchise of the NTC rules and regulations. The NTC will follow the latest advice of the DOJ (Department of Justice) and let ABS-CBN continue operations based on equity,” NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba told the House committee in a hearing Tuesday.

Congress will go on recess for the Lenten break Wednesday. It resumes session on May 14. 

The panel, chaired by Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez opened hearings on the renewal of ABS-CBN’s congressional franchise.

ABS-CBN's franchise will expire on May 4. 

In a letter on February 12, the NTC sought a legal opinion from the Department of Justice to find out if ABS-CBN may continue its operations beyond May 4 through a provisional authority which Cordoba later said the NTC will “likely” issue.

“Based on the foregoing discussions, there is sufficient equitable basis to allow broadcast entities to continue operating while the bills on the renewal of their respective franchise with Congress,” the DOJ  said in a letter to the NTC.

DOJ said adopting a concurrent resolution authorizing the NTC to issue a provisional authority would provide a “more stable legal environment.”

“The resolution will be enough but it will give the NTC more legal armor if the Senate will do the same,” said Cordoba, noting that the Senate has adopted Resolution No. 40, expressing its view that ABS-CBN Corp. and its subsidiaries should be allowed and granted the provisional authority to continue.

Cordoba said NTC is “comforted by the fact that both chambers of Congress are aligned with the DOJ and the NTC’s take on the issue.”

In a press conference, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the NTC’s statement before the panel is its way of saying it is heeding the legislative’s call.

“I don’t think it’s good that the Executive will be taking orders from the legislative. So, I think it is the polite way of NTC to say, ‘yes sir,’” he said.

Cayetano said  ABS-CBN should examine itself and ask why other network’s franchises were easily granted.

“Look at yourselves, too. Why is your franchise encountering hitches? Maybe you’ve done something wrong, too,” he said.

The committee focused on setting the ground rules for the deliberations to ensure orderly proceedings. DMS