HOUSE APPROVES ABS-CBN FRANCHISE EXTENSION

The move of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to grant a five-month provisional franchise to ABS-CBN to operate its vast broadcast network will certainly not earn plaudits from his critics or from press freedom advocates who have already castigated him for dealing with congressional franchises as if it were a lease contract.

Congress, acting as a Committee of the Whole, granted the provisional franchise in the afternoon of May 13, wrote Neil Arwin Mercado of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), in what has been described as a bid to head off popular contempt for Cayetano, who had sat on the 11 pending bills for the ABS-CBN congressional franchise since they were filed in 2016.

What the House of Representatives approved was House Bill No. 6732 or “An Act Granting the ABS-CBN Corporation A Franchise to Construct, Install, Operate and Maintain Radio and Television Broadcasting Stations in the Philippines, and For Other Purposes” filed by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and several other lawmakers. Under the bill, ABS-CBN will be granted a provisional franchise valid until October 31, 2020.

ABS-CBN has already questioned its shutdown by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which promised to provide the network provisional authority after its franchise lapsed on May 4, 2020 but chose instead to shutter it after being threatened with graft charges if it issues such a provisional authority. #ABSCBNShutdown #ABSCBNFRanchise