MONDAY / MARCH 9, 2o2o
WWW.INQUIRER.NET
(No reason for NTG
not to issue provisional
authority to ABS-GBN'
By DJ Yap
e!9!EE4NO
Thele's no reason for tire Na-
tional. Telecommunications
Comnission (NTC) to deny the
request of Congress that it al-
low ABS-CBN to continue oper-
ating after its license expires on
May 4, according to a vice chair
of the House legislative fran-
chise! committee.
Isabela Rep. Antonio Albano
ou Saturday played down fears
thar the NTC would not gran! the
provisional authorily sought by
the House leadership on behalf
of ABS-CBN pending .approval
of the latter's application for re-
newal through ir bills
"Therefore, we do not fore-
see alry reason for NTC not to
issue a provisional authority
that we have requested," he
said in a statement.
Albano said he respected
the opilion of President Dute-
rte'S spokesperson and chief
legal counsel Salvador Panelo,
who earlier commented that any
provisional authority granted to
ABS CBN without a vaiid fran-
chise would be "iuegal."
' "liowever, this will not pre-
vent us in Congress, particu-
larly the franchise committee,
frorn moving forward to hear
the case, as we maintain our po-
sition that NTC should issue the
provisional authority to ABS-
CBN pending the Selibe(ation
of said ABS.CBN applicatioll,"
Albano said.
Only Congress can grant or
deny a broadcasting franchise
but it has no powers over the
NTC, an executive office at-
tached to the Department of
Information and Communica-
tioni technology.
Precedent
.House leaders wete banking
on precedent cases in which the
NTC allowed franchise holders
whose license had erpired to
continue operating while Con-
gress was still deliberating on
their application.
"Surely, it would be prudert
for NTC to also give the same
precedent practices of issuing a
provisional authority that it has
done so in the past as a courte-
sy to Congress and for judicial
purposes," Albano said.
AI6ay Rep. Edcel Lagman on
Sunday branded the planned
I eqe€,A{ot
March 10 hearing on ABS-
CBN's franchise as "cosmet-
ic and inconseque[tial" as
it would not delve into the
actual renewal of the license,
but only -its temporary ex-
tension.
Franchise no less
The opposition lawmak-
er, who initially praised the
House leadership's move to
schedule the hearing a day
before Congress was to ad-
journ session, maintained
that his colleagues were
wrong to focus on securing
a provisional authority from
the NTC to let ABS-CBN con-
tinue to operate after the ex-
piration of its license.
He insisted that the House
should be worldng toward the
actual grant or denial of ABS-
CBN'S ftanchise, as no less
than such would legally as-
sure the broadcast giant ofthe
right to keep operating.
ABS-CBN'S z5-year fran-
clise will lapse on the day co-
inciding with the resumption
of plenary session of the two
legislative chambers after the
Lenten bfeak. rNo