Following President Duterte’s fresh tirades against ABS-CBN, Congress’s capacity to remain true to its mandate is again facing some grave challenges. Filed new bills in the Lower House, which intend to grant the embattled media giant a new franchise.
Thus, it will allow ABS-CBN to reclaim its relinquished frequencies and return to free television.
In his latest address to the nation, Duterte again declared his intention to block the Kapamilya Network’s return. He threatened to instruct and prohibit the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)–to grant the Network a permit to operate, even if ABS-CBN can secure a new franchise from Congress.
Allies of Duterte have repeatedly denied his involvement in the shutdown of the TV Network. Critics of the government expressed disgust and pointed out the President’s pronouncements of blocking the media giant from securing a new franchise as an immature act.
While the Palace has persistently maintained Duterte’s neutrality on the issues–his recent instructions to the country’s highest telecommunications regulating agency defy his allies’ claims.
Spokesperson Harry Roque assured the public that it allows members of the Legislative body to exercise their legislative powers to vote on their conscience–should a plenary vote deciding ABS-CBN’s franchise application takes place.
House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco’s assertion on the Lower Chambers not being Duterte’s ‘rubberstamps’–will also be tested. The Marinduque representative and now the highest-serving member of the Lower House declared last year that the Institution’s loyalty is to the people.
But the public must remember that it was through the President’s intervention why Velasco was able to secure the House Speakership, which previously belonged to Taguig-representative, and another close Duterte ally, Allan Peter Cayetano.
ABS-CBN’s chance of getting a new franchise, however, is dimmed by plans to put on the shelves, any motion to revive calls for a plenary vote, and new bills seeking to give the network a new 25-year license. The current Chairperson of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises has recently dismissed any motion that will get Congress back to tackling the issue, saying that the matter is better left untouched until the next Congress convenes.
Nevertheless, because of President Duterte’s recent pronouncements, speculations that a force is currently at work in Congress, to revive ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal, pointing out the President’s seemingly obvious instruction to the NTC, which seems to send a message to the Lower House, where the said motion is currently active. Did Duterte secretly threaten the Lower House, and instruct it to leave the matter regarding the ABS-CBN’s franchise, alone?
Interestingly, Duterte’s latest tirades centered on the Lopezes’ alleged unpaid taxes and loans to the government, which he asserted must be first settled before he would allow the now franchise-less network to return. Such tax obligations, however, do not, or no longer exist, as affirmed by concerned government agencies, which the Lower House interrogated during the deliberations on ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal, in July, last year.
Should Congress decide to tackle ABS-CBN franchise-seeking-bills, this year, it will be interesting to see whether its members will uphold the institution’s independence, and prove Velasco’s claim that the House won’t be the President’s rubberstamp. The allowing of such a bill, to roll, alone, will be seen as stark defiance to Duterte’s threat, but passing it to become a law, will be a completely different thing, that will prove the Congress’s independence.
It is almost certain that the President will veto any law passed to allow ABS-CBN’s return. The fate of the recuperating media giant, therefore, now almost solely rests on the power of Congress, who may opt to override such veto, and ultimately crush Duterte’s desire to never let ABS-CBN return to free television, again.
