Poe wants to conduct hearing on ABS-CBN franchise renewal earlier than set

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe said Tuesday that her committee is eyeing to conduct a public hearing on ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal earlier than initially scheduled.

“We are trying to move it earlier,” Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, told reporters in an interview.

Pressed for further details on the new possible date of the hearing, she said: “Basta earlier.”

“Ang mahirap dito, mahirap kumuha ng venue kasi maraming mga bills na pending, maraming mga oversight functions ang Senado kaya makikipagtulungan kami sa Secretariat para makahanap ng venue,” Poe said.

(What’s difficult here is it’s difficult to get a venue because there are many pending bills, the Senate has many oversight functions so we would coordinate with the Secretariat to find a venue.)

The hearing on the broadcasting network’s legislative franchise by Poe’s committee has been previously set on February 27. This developed as 11 bills on the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise were still not taken up at the House of Representatives and the government’s chief lawyer, the Office of the Solicitor General, filed a quo warranto petition asking the Supreme Court to void ABS-CBN’s franchise allegedly to “abusive practices”.

Earlier Tuesday, Solicitor General Jose Calida asked the high court to issue a gag order against concerned parties in the quo warranto case.

“Alam mo ginagawan nila ng paraan para ‘wag magasalita ‘yung ating mga resource person. Papano naman kami magkakaroon ng maayos na pagdinig? So siyempre kailangan din kami gumawa ng hakbang para naman maprotektahan din ‘yung aming layunin dito ‘di ba?” Poe said.

(You know they are doing ways to prevent our resource persons from talking.  How could we have a good hearing? So, of course, we also need to do steps to protect our goals here, right?)

Edited by KGA