MANILA – The quo warranto petition of the Office of the Solicitor General (SolGen) against the ABS-CBN will still go on despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s acceptance of the network’s apology.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said over the weekend the petition filed by SolGen Jose Calida before the Supreme Court has nothing to do with Duterte.
President Duterte recently accepted the apology extended by ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak for the network’s failure to air some of his paid campaign advertisement during the 2016 national elections.
“Let me again reiterate the position: The quo warranto has nothing to do with the personal feeling of displeasure, hurt and offense of the President,” Panelo said. “(Calida) lodged the quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN on his own.”
“The franchise renewal of ABS-CBN has been there, filed in 2014 prior to the assumption of this President. So, there is no way by which anybody can be blaming this President for the inaction of Congress whether the previous Congress or the present Congress. The grant and renewal lie mainly and exclusively with Congress,” he added.
Three weeks ago, Calida has filed a petition before the SC as he accused the network and its subsidiary ABS-CBN Convergence of various abuses, including illegal pay-per-view offering and foreign ownership.
A week after, the OSG has also filed a gag order motion to prevent the network from discussing the case in its programs as well as prevent its actors from commenting on the issue.
ABS-CBN has responded on both petitions by Calida as they insisted that their franchise has no violation and that the gag order was a violation of press freedom as well as deprivation of the public of a vital source of information./PN
