MANILA – The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has agreed to issue a provisional authority allowing ABS-CBN to operate while its franchise renewal bid is still pending.
During the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Franchises hearing on Tuesday, NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said the granting was based on the latest advice of the Department of Justice to let the media network operate based on “equity.”
“A more stable legal environment could be created…to authorize NTC to issue provisional authority to this broadcasting company, under such terms and conditions as it may deem necessary until Congress’ final disposition of the franchise renewal bill,” Cordoba said.
The NTC’s granting of provisional authority case as the Supreme Court (SC) has deferred to take any action on the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) against ABS-CBN over alleged franchise violations.
SC spokesperson Keith Brian Hosaka said Tuesday the high court justices could tackle Solicitor General Jose Calida’s quo warranto petition as well as in the gag order motion against the network on April 14.
Calida has filed a quo warranto 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.
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.
The ABS CBN have responded on both petitions by Calida earlier this week 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
