CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez has filed a resolution in Congress to grant a temporary franchise to network giant ABS-CBN as they will deliberate on the renewal of the company’s franchise this month.
Rodriguez said there are at least 11 related resolutions aside from his filed in the House Committee on Legislative Franchises related to the ABS-CBN franchise.
The congressman also filed the same resolution in the previous Congress but this was not tackled on the floor until the session closed last March.
Rodriguez said they had discussed this matter with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) during the previous Congress, but “it was unfortunate that the (NTC) chose to ignore the collective voice of the House and the Senate for it to issue a provisional authority to ABS-CBN to allow it to pursue its broadcast services.”
The lawmaker urged Congress to “speed up its hearings” on the beleaguered station.
Rodriguez also proposed that Congress include in the issuance of a legislative franchise the authority for the NTC or any concerned regulator to provisionally allow a franchisee with an expired franchise and a renewal application pending with the House to continue operating until its application is rejected.
“Such authority expressly given to the regulator would prevent a recurrence of the bitter quarrel among public officials on whether ABS-CBN should continue broadcasting while the House is tackling the 11 pending renewal bills,” he said.(davaotoday.com)
