Revilla urges House to settle ABS-CBN’s franchise

MANILAa, Philippines — Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. pressed the House of Representatives on Wednesday to act on the franchise of ABS-CBN to, once and for all, settle the issues surrounding it.

Revilla has filed a bill extending the franchise of the network until December 31 this year to give time Congress to tackle it. If not, the franchise would expire on May 4.

READ: Revilla’s bill seeks to extend ABS-CBN’s franchise for 8 months

“If you’ll ask me dapat ma-resolve na natin ito as soon as posible. Kung pwe-pwede nga huwag nang umabot ng Disyembre, ‘di ba, dahil dapat ang tingnan natin ‘yung sa mas nakakarami para matigil na ‘yung agam-agam ng lahat,” Revilla said in an interview at the Senate on Wednesday.

(If you’ll ask me, we should resolve this as soon as possible. As much as possible, we should not wait for December because what we should consider is the welfare of the greater number so we can alleviate everyone’s apprehensions.)

“Siguro even the President himself, ayaw niya rin na nadadawit siya dito ng ganyan. So siguro ang maganda, siguro dapat talaga dinggin na sa Kongreso ito, sa lower house, and once for all matapos na itong problema na ito,” he said.

(Maybe even the President himself doesn’t want to get involved in this. So maybe it’s better to just hear it in Congress, in the lower house, and once and for all, end this problem.)

The senator recognized that the franchise bill should emanate from the House. Until now however, the lower chamber has yet to hold a hearing on ABS-CBN’s franchise.

But he hopes the House could finish its work on the franchise bill so the Senate could also do its job.

“Pwede nga two weeks kaya ‘yan e (In fact, this can be done in two weeks),” Revilla said, but quickly added the need for the Senate and the House to work with each other.

Revilla admitted that like President Rodrigo Duterte, he also had his own sentiments about ABS-CBN.

But he said he decided to set this aside, and chose to do what is right.

“Inisip ko kung ano ang mas makakabuti sa mas nakakaarami (I’m thinking of what would benefit the majority),” Revilla said.