House Committee on Legislative Franchises chair Franz Alvarez said his panel will now start working on the franchise renewal bills of ABS-CBN pending in Congress.
In a statement, Committee chair and Palawan 1st District Congressman Alvarez said his panel would start deliberating on ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal when the session resumes this January.
He said Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has already called on a fair and objective hearing on the franchise renewal of the Kapamilya network.
“The advice of Speaker Alan [Peter Cayetano] to us was to make sure that we would be always fair and impartial in reviewing the application of ABS-CBN, or the application of any other public utility, for that matter. At the same time it is Congress’ duty to accept complaints and hear issues brought up in any complaint or objection,” said Alvarez.
But he reminded the media giant that under the Philippine law, a media franchise is a privilege and not a right.
“But we should all be reminded that under the law, the grant of a franchise is not a right, but a privilege. This is why we have to hear all sides and find out if ABS-CBN violated the provisions of its franchise,” he added.
ABS-CBN’s franchise is about to expire in March 2020.
The bills seeking the network’s franchise renewal has been pending in Congress as early as 2016 due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s continuous opposition to it.
Just recently in a speech in Cotabato, the President advised the Lopezes to just sell the network because he doesn’t see that Congress will grant them a franchise extension.
Duterte’s repeated attacks were attributed to his accusation that ABS-CBN swindled him when they failed to air his 2016 campaign ads.
Aside from Duterte, Speaker Cayetano also shared his grievance against the network when there was alleged “unfair” coverage of the Vice Presidential candidates when he was running for office.
Currently, there are 9 bills endorsed by 11 solons who support the Kapamilya network’s franchise renewal.
