January 9, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda has joined five of his colleagues in the House of Representatives in pushing for the renewal of the legislative franchise of TV giant ABS-CBN
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee told reporters he filed House Bill 11252 in a bid to grant the Lopez-owned broadcast station another 25 years, or at least until 2050 in case the chamber, which revoked the franchise in July 2020, issues another one until June this year.
“I believe the free market of ideas requires competition. A virtual monopoly will not do, as far as disseminating ideas and keeping the public informed is concerned. I also owe it to Albay. ABS-CBN remains the single most important news source in Albay, despite its lack of a franchise,” he said.
As it is now, there are six House members – Salceda, Reps. Rufus Rodriguez, Gabriel Bordado Jr., France Castro, Arlene Brosas and Raoul Manuel of the Makabayan Bloc – have endorsed the ABS-CBN bill in the 19th Congress, or since July 2022 that will last until June 2025.
“I saw adding my name to the list of principal authors this time as a way to add my voice to what is clearly the right thing to do,” the senior administration legislator, who will be running for Albay governor in the May 12 elections this year, said.
Salceda said key government agencies like the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Securities and Exchange Commission “have cleared ABS-CBN of the allegations against them.”
“I was a former co-author of their franchise in the past Congress (18th Congress – 2019 to 2022). You will remember that I even warned against the franchise rejection on grounds that it will add to COVID-19 infections due to lack of information,” he recalled.
Rodriguez, of Cagayan de Oro’s second district, stated in his explanatory note that he filed House Bill 4202 “in order to provide uninterrupted and improved delivery of its services to the Filipino people, the franchise should be granted in the soonest possible time.”
For his part, Bordado, who authored House Bill 4290 (ABS-CBN Franchise Act of 2022), warned that “limiting the availability of communication and information channels that the people can access could allow exclusivity, misinformation , and false information to propagate.”
In July 2022, the three members of the left-wing Makabayan bloc have refiled the bill seeking the renewal of the legislative franchise of ABS-CBN, which the House shut down in May 2020 owing to several franchise violations.
Reps. Brosas of women’s group Gabriela, Castro of ACT Teachers and Manuel of Kabataan party-list filed House Bill 1218 in the hopes of reviving the Lopez-owned broadcast network for another 25 years, or until 2047.
“This is a challenge for Congress to defy the rising tyranny, to stand for freedom and democracy,” the militant lawmakers stated in their explanatory note, after the National Telecommunications Commission shut it down following the expiration of its franchise.
The progressive lawmakers said Congress should go beyond what former president Duterte did to ABS-CBN where he admitted using presidential powers to verify franchise violations of the network, insisting freedom of the press should still be paramount.
Be the first to comment