Lagman: NTC shouldn’t be a scapegoat for House failure on ABS-CBN issue

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER.net file photo / RYAN LEAGOGO

MANILA, Philippines — The National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) must not be used as a “scapegoat” for the closure of broadcast operations of media giant ABS-CBN, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman noted that he has repeatedly said that the provisional authority solution, which House leaders were banking on in assuring that ABS-CBN will continue its operations while its bid for franchise renewal is pending in the lower chamber, is against the law.

“The National Telecommunication Commission must not be used as the scapegoat for the patent failure of the leadership of the House of Representatives to resolutely push for the seasonable renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise,” Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman said in a statement.

“There is no other solution to the dilemma of ABS-CBN than the immediate renewal of its franchise now that the Congress is in session,” the lawmaker added.

Palawan 1st District Rep. Franz Alvarez, who chairs the House committee on legislative franchises, warned the NTC that they may be held in contempt for “backtracking” on its earlier pronouncement that it would grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate.

To recall, on March 10, NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba told members of the House that they will follow the advice of the Department of Justice (DOJ), allowing ABS-CBN to operate while its franchise renewal bid is pending in Congress.

But Lagman argued that Republic Act 7925 or the Public Telecommunications Policy Act states that “no person shall commence or conduct the business of being a public telecommunications entity without first obtaining a franchise.”

“It appears that Speaker Cayetano and Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova of NTC were playing charades because after Cordova undertook to grant the provisional authority, the NTC nonetheless issued the cease and desist order for ABS-CBN to stop operations,” Lagman said.

“The closure of the network giant, which could have been averted by the timely congressional renewal of its franchise, is a flagrant derogation of the freedom of the press,” the lawmaker added.

Moreover, Lagman said that President Rodrigo Duterte’s acceptance of ABS-CBN’s apology should have been a “go signal” for the lower chamber to act on the franchise renewal bid of the network.

“The President subsequently accepted the explanation and apology of ABS-CBN executives which could have been the go signal for the House to renew the franchise, unless such acceptance was part of the travesty to eventually shut down ABS-CBN for some ulterior motives,” Lagman said.

“The shuttering of ABC-CBN highlights the verity that the House must exercise its constitutional powers independently and without succumbing to the President’s intervention,” he added.

In an Order dated May 5, the NTC directed ABS-CBN to stop operating its television and radio broadcasting stations nationwide “absent a valid Congressional Franchise required by law.”

The NTC cited Republic Act No. 3846 or the Radio Control Law which states that “no person, firm, company, association, or corporation shall construct, install, establish, or operate a radio transmitting station, or radio receiving station used for commercial purposes, or a radio broadcasting station, without having first obtained a franchise therefor from the Congress of the Philippines.”

Thus, with the expiration of the Republic Act. No 7966, which granted ABS-CBN a 25-year franchise to operate its TV and radio broadcasting stations, NTC said that ABS-CBN “no longer has a valid and subsisting congressional franchise as required by Act No. 3846.

JPV

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