After much ado and noise about fast-tracking a 5-month provisional franchise for media giant ABS-CBN in the past week, the Lower House of Congress announced on May 18 they will no longer tackle the bill. They would now instead tackle the pending bills on the 25-year franchise extension of ABS-CBN.
As criticisms flared against the shock shutdown of ABS-CBN, the House of Representatives (HOR), proposed and passed House Bill (HB) 6732, granting ABS-CBN a provisional franchise. The bill, authored by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and seven other House members, aimed to give ABS-CBN a provisional franchise until 31 October 2020 “unless sooner revoked or canceled”, as Congress debates whether or not to give it another 25-year franchise. This, he said, would allow ABS-CBN to go back on air by June.
Cayetano’s provisional franchise bill required the media giant to dedicate 10% of its paid commercials or advertisements to the government. ABS-CBN’s responsibilities to the public are discussed in Section 4 of House Bill 6732 which includes providing “free of charge, adequate public service time” to allow the government to reach public on “important public issues or announcements,” particularly in times of calamity.
However, the provisional franchise was seen as a “short leash” government is placing on ABS-CBN’s neck as well. Many were baffled as to why Congress would want to go through the process of passing a franchise twice? In both provisional and 25-year franchise extension, the pending bills needed to go through the HOR, require the concurrence of the Senate and will require the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte or will lapse into law if not acted on after 30 days.
ABS-CBN went off the air, the first time it did and a media outfit painted as the enemy of a sitting president was forced closes by government since martial law was declared in 1972. The shutdown puts at risk more than 11,000 jobs.
What happened with ABS-CBN’s franchise extension since they went off the air on May 5?
- On May 5, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease-and-desist order against the television network ABS-CBN. This is despite the telecoms regulatory agency’s March 10 promise to Congress to give ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate when its franchise expires on May 4—an assurance that had to be given since the Congress was adjourning from March 14 to 4 and all three years in their incumbency they were unable to table the legislations for the 25-year franchise extension of the network.
- On May 7, ABS-CBN asked the Supreme Court for a writ of preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order (TRO) to immediately stop the NTC’s cease and desist order.
- On May 8, Cayetano broke his silence and blamed the NTC and Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on the ABS-CBN shutdown issue. He vowed that NTC will face the consequences for “succumbing to pressure” from the government’s lawyer, Jose Calida, who told NTC on May 3 World Press Freedom Day that the agency’s officials will face charges if they issue ABS-CBN a provisional authority because NTC may only do so after Congress passed a law on the network’s franchise extension. He said there will be “reckoning” despite the “unconstitutional meddling” of the OSG “in the business of Congress.
- On May 12, the Supreme Court confirmed that it has raffled out to a magistrate the petition filed by ABS-CBN. It has been a week since ABS-CBN signed off.
- Public outcry prompted an unexpected move of the HOR to fast-track a franchise for ABS-CBN, albeit a short lease, on May 13. HB 6732 was successively approved in the committee level and on second reading by the House Committee of the Whole.
- HB 6732 was then scheduled to be put to a vote on the third reading on May 18, in compliance with a Congress three-day rule from the time it was approved on second reading. The approved bill will then be transmitted to the Senate for its concurrence. The Senate scheduled their deliberations on May 19, expecting they will have a copy of the bill from the Lower House by then. Should the Senate approve a different version from the HOR, then the two chambers of Congress would need to thresh it out. If Senate passes the bill from the Lower House as is, then it would proceed much faster to the desk of the president.
- On May 17, the HOR looked to walk back the process and restart with second reading on May 18 to comply with the Constitutional requirement for bill readings to be done on separate days. With the new schedule, they look to finish second reading this week and the third reading can be done Monday next week, May 25. The fastest time for this to be approved in this timeline looked to be by mid-June, and by then the 5-month provisional franchise would have less time than that.
- On May 18, the HOR recalled its approval of the provisional franchise bill on second reading due to “members who wish to make some interpellations and possible amendments on the bill” and also curing the constitutional defect of having passed it on the same day
- In an urgent reiterative motion filed Monday, May 18, ABS-CBN said the provisional franchise bill would still take time, pleading the Supreme Court to immediately issue a TRO on the NTC order.
- In response, on Tuesday, May 19, the Supreme Court refused to act on a request for the immediate resumption of service, instead asking the NTC and Congress to respond within 10 days to the petition.
- On May 19, the HOR decided to forego with the deliberations on the interim franchise, Cayetano gave ground rules for the resumption of House committee on legislative franchises’ hearings on ABS-CBN but no dates of the hearing were announced yet.
- While the legislative franchise of ABS-CBN had to first go through the HOR, the Senate started its deliberations on the same matter on May 19.
How long will the Lower House deliberate on ABS-CBN’s 25-year franchise extension and how long will ABS-CBN most likely at the minimum remain shut? That is something that can be divined when the Lower House announced the schedule of hearings on the franchise.
If on May 18, the Lower House is looking to go back to second reading, on May 19 it will now go back to where this all started—the pending legislations that have yet to be acted on by Congress.
Many had seen this inaction on the part of the Lower House, through which the bill has to pass first, to be the effect of President Rodrigo Duterte’s threats to shut down the network supposedly for not airing ads he paid for and not returning his money—accusations that have been since clarified. Duterte is said to hold a supermajority of allies in both houses of Congress.
The 1995 legislative contract of the broadcasting corporation expired on 4 May 2020. The franchise of its subsidiary, ABS-CBN Convergence, had expired earlier on 17 March.
Since 2016, ABS-CBN has been pursuing the extension of its franchise through several bills submitted in the HOR. The lawmakers failed to on the bills until the franchise of the network expired and despite public pressure.
