BAYAN Muna Representatives Carlos Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite urged the House leadership to tackle the bills for the renewal of ABS-CBN franchise.
Zarate and Gaite also appealed to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to be “true to the mandate of an independent coequal branch of government” by calling for the start of the hearing of the 10 existing bills for ABS-CBN especially that the said network’s franchise is set to expire next month.
The Makabayan legislators said that from this month’s agenda, they is no hearing scheduled for any of the 10 ABS-CBN franchise bills. The House legislative franchises committee is chaired by Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez, an ally to the Duterte administration. President Duterte has been vocal in his position against giving a fresh franchise to ABS-CBN citing old grudge that dates back to the time when he ran for president.
“We hope that the Speaker and [Alvarez] can immediately remedy this and set a hearing for next week. Time is of the essence and we must assert the independence of the House and its stand to uphold press freedom,”Zarate said.
Congress will be in session only until March 11 or barely a month from now.
Zarate said if the Congress does not tackle any of the bills and allow the network to go out of business, more than 7,000 employees will suffer from their move.
“We are calling for a hearing at the soonest time possible as what is also at stake here is the fate of more than 7,000 employees who would be out of work in March,” Zarate said.
Apart from actors and workers, legislators who support the ABS-CBN franchise renewal are Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto of Batangas; Rose Marie Arenas of Pangasinan; Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga; and Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur.
In the Philippines, radio and television broadcasters, unlike newspapers, are required to seek a franchise from Congress, pursuant to Republic Act No. 3846.
For his part, Alvarez said that although he is in favor of giving another 25 years to the network, but his hands remain tied.
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