THE House leadership on Monday withdrew the passage on second reading of a bill granting ABS-CBN Corp. a provisional franchise after some lawmakers raised possible constitutional infirmities because of the way it was approved last week.
On the motion of deputy majority leader Wilter Wee Palma II (Zamboanga Zibugay), the House reconsidered the passage of HB No. 6732, “An Act Granting the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. a Franchise to Construct, Install, Operate and Maintain Television and Radio Broadcasting Stations in the Philippines and for Other Purposes.”
This developed as the Senate public services committee announced the resource persons invited to its hearing today, Tuesday, bills on ABS-CBN’s franchise. Among them are officials from the Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General, the National Telecommunications Commission, Department of Information and Communications Technology, and ABS-CBN Corp., and former senator Juan Ponce Enrile.
The panel chaired by Sen. Grace Poe opened its hearing last February.
At the House, Palma moved that the House “reconsider approval on second reading of House Bill No. 6732” because of the request of panel members “who wish to make some interpellation and possible amendments on the bill.”
HB 6732 seeks to allow the network to resume operation until the end of October, while the House is deliberating on several bills seeking to renew its expired 25-year franchise.
No House member objected to Palma’s motion. The presiding officer, deputy speaker Raneo Abu of Batangas, then said, “The reconsideration of approval on second reading of House Bill No. 6732 is hereby adopted.”
Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman have both questioned the passage of the bill on first and second reading on the same day, May 13.
They cited Article VI Section 26 of the Constitution which states that: “No bill passed by either House shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days, and printed copies thereof in its final form have been distributed to its members three days before its passage, except when the President certifies to the necessity of its immediate enactment to meet a public calamity or emergency.”
The House also recalled the termination of the period of amendments, the termination of period of sponsorship and debate and re-opened the period of interpellation on the measure.
Lagman welcomed the decision of House leadership to reconsider the approval on second reading of HB 6732, saying it would allow members “to cleanse it from some constitutional infirmity” since the bill “must be free of any constitutional defect.”
The opposition lawmaker later interpellated deputy speaker Luis Raymond Villafuerte, one of the sponsors of short-term franchise for the giant network, who maintained that the procedure that was followed when the House approved the bill the first and second reading is constitutional.
Villafuerte said approving a measure on first and second reading on the same day has “due precedence” because it was done in the 10th Congress when House Joint Resolution No. 011 approving the transfer in the controlling interest in the stockholdings of Multimedia Telephony Inc. was taken up on first and second reading on the same day.
“We are doing that (recalling of approval) simply because it is also the prerogative of this body to do so, to revert back, we’ve done that in the past. It has precedence,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said Congress is “transparent, responsive and consensual” and its leaders “listen to other members.”
“(However) It does not mean that (just because) we’re reverting back to second reading, we are of the believe there is a constitutional defect,” he said.
FREE GOV’T ADS
Section 4 on the Responsibility to the Public of HB 6732 requires ABS-CBN to allot free airtime for government commercials until end of October.
The measure requires the network to set aside “adequate public service time” for “important public issues” — the same provision in the laws which renewed the legislative franchises of GMA-7 and TV5.
The bill defines public service time as “10 percent of the paid commercials or advertisements which shall be allocated based on the need to the executive, legislative, judiciary, constitutional commissions, and international humanitarian organizations duly recognized by statutes.”
The Speaker said the government should not be made to pay the latest rate of P1 million to P1.4 million for a 30-second ad.
“Mahirap naman po na pagbabayarin pa natin ang gobyerno ng P1 million-P1.4 million for 30 seconds, yung airwaves naman ginagamit niya (e libre) (It’s not right to charge the government P1 million to P1.4 million for 30 seconds when the airwaves that they’re using is free),” Cayetano told Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, one of the authors of the franchise renewal bills.
“Kung hindi ako nagkakamali yan ang going rate po. Yan po talaga ang nasa advertising industry. Even with those rates, maraming nag-a-advertise napupuno nga po sila (If I’m not mistaken, that’s the going rate of those in the advertising industry and even with those rates, many are still placing ads and slots get full,” the Speaker added.
SENATE HEARING
At the Senate, other resource persons invited to today’s hearing are retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno, retired Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, and Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, dean of the Graduate School of Law of San Beda College.
Poe has inhibited from the hearing because her mother, actress Susan Roces, is a talent of ABS-CBN network. She has asked Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, one of the panel’s vice chairmen, to preside over the hearing.
The panel will tackle Senate Bill No 981 filed by Ralph Recto, Emmanuel Pacquiao, and Leila de Lima; and SB 1521 filed by Recto, Gatchalian, Pacquiao, Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Richard Gordon, Joel Villanueva, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Ramon Revilla Jr., Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, and Manuel Lapid.
Senate Bill No. 981 seeks to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise for another 25 years, while Senate Bill No. 1521 seeks to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise to operate until June 2022.
Franchise bills must be first approved by the House of Representatives before it can be considered for plenary approval in the Senate.
Gatchalian earlier said that even without the transmittal from the House, the committee will still continue hearings on the bills but the committee will not come up with a report unless the House transmits its final version of the bill.
Nine of the senators were asked on Monday by lawyer Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon to inhibit themselves from the hearing as they are allegedly biased in favor of the network.
Gadon, who went to the Senate building in Pasay City to submit his request to the office of the Senate President, said the nine senators have interests in ABS-CBN. He said they are Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Pangilinan, Cayetano, Pacquiao, Lapid, Poe, Recto, Revilla, and Juan Edgardo Angara.
The senators said Gadon’s plea has no basis.
“I am not financially interested in the business of ABS-CBN. I am not a stockholder, I am part of Congress that is mandated by the Constitution to grant franchise. I cannot shirk from my sworn duty,” said Sotto whom Gadon said received fees and royalties when his noontime show “Eat Bulaga” was aired over ABS-CBN.
Pangilinan, husband of ABS-CBN talent Sharon Cuneta, refused to make any comment.
Drilon said the Senate is a political body and “inhibition is a personal decision of each senator.” — With Raymond Africa
