DOJ opinion ‘next week’ on ABS-CBN franchise

The Department of Justice will issue a legal opinion next week on whether ABS-CBN may still operate if Congress fails to act on bills to renew its franchise before it expires on March 30.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said his office received last Tuesday afternoon a request for legal advice on the matter from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which regulates and supervises radio and TV stations.

“We hope to reply by next week,” he said.

Pressed for a tentative date on House hearings on the franchise bills, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said it would either be in May, or after the State of the Nation Address in July.

“Why am I saying this is not urgent? Because ABS-CBN will not shut down. We already have coordination with the [NTC, which] shall allow the network to operate while we are having hearings,” he said.

But while the House of Representatives has yet to tackle the 11 pending bills seeking to renew the network’s franchise, the Senate has pushed a hearing on the issue, with the move spearheaded by Senators Bong Go, Grace Poe and Franklin Drilon.

In France, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar met with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) at the Philippine Embassy on Tuesday to reassure the media watchdog that press freedom was “much alive” in the country.

The Palace official described the media environment in the Philippines as “one of the most vibrant in the world.”

“Our meeting with the Reporters Without Borders was fruitful. We presented the government’s existing efforts of the administration to safeguard press freedom in the country,” Andanar said. —WITH REPORTS FROM MELVIN GASCON, JULIE M. AURELIO AND JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE