Cayetano pressed to hold hearings on ABS-CBN now

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 14 lawmakers on Tuesday called on House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to let Congress tackle the pending bills for the renewal of franchise of network giant ABS-CBN, which has been ordered shut down by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

In their letter, the bills’ authors and coauthors said that while they share the disgust of most House members over the “trickery” of the NTC, and the supposed meddling by the Office of the Solicitor General that led the network to stop its broadcasts, the burden to resolve the controversy lay primarily on Congress.

“We understand that there are important measures that the House leadership has to attend to in this extraordinary time. However, we believe, too, that resolving the ABS-CBN issue the soonest is equally important given the impact, economically and politically, of its continued shutdown in this time of crisis,” they said.

The 14 members of Congress wrote to Cayetano days after the NTC ordered ABS-CBN to stop broadcasts over an expired franchise, despite bills seeking its renewal have been filed since the 18th Congress opened on June 30 last year.

The signatories of the letter are: Deputy Speakers Vilma Santos-Recto (Batangas), Rose Marie Arenas (Pangasinan), and Johnny Pimentel (Surigao del Sur); Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro City), Joy Myra Tambunting (Parañaque), Micaela Violago (Nueva Ecija), Josephine Sato (Occidental Mindoro), Sol Aragones (Laguna), Arlene Brosas (Gabriela), France Castro (ACT Teachers), Sarah Jane Elago (Kabataan), and Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Zarate, and Reps. Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat (Bayan Muna).

ABS-CBN stopped broadcasts on its free-to-air television channel 2, as well as radio stations dzMM and MOR-FM, in compliance with the NTC order. It has, however, shifted its programming to livestreaming platforms online.

The lawmakers expressed lament that the ABS-CBN closure has put not only the House committee on legislative franchises in a bad light but the entire House of Representatives.

“The committee and the House are now being blamed for the shutdown of the network and for being off the air since then, as well as the displacement of thousands of its employees and workers,” they said.