Cayetano allays Poe's fears on ABS-CBN franchise denial
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday advised Sen. Grace Poe to “chill” on the controversy hounding the House of Representatives' decision to reject ABS-CBN’s bid for a new legislative franchise, saying that fears of its “chilling” effect on journalists and freedom of expression are unfounded.
In a Facebook post, Cayetano urged Poe and Vice President Leni Robredo to “join us in fighting what is right” (sic) despite allegedly benefiting from the support of the network.
The House leader urged Robredo and Poe to “read the decision, re-watch the hearings and maybe come to understand that not breaking the law is not the same as obeying it.”
Nevertheless, Cayetano invited the two women politicians to continue to discuss the ABS-CBN and other issues affecting the country “in a reasoned, deliberate, open and respectful manner.”
“Hopefully with these dialogues, and after reading the report, we can give and take from each other those missing pieces that make our vision complete,” he said.
Cayetano’s social media tirades were a clear response to the criticisms hurled by them towards the Lower House for junking the 11 bills proposing for the grant of a 25-year legislative franchise to the TV network.
Poe was reported to have issued a warning that the rejection of the franchise application “sets a dangerous precedent for all other franchises.”
Cayetano decried the senator’s warning as he urged her to compare the way the Lower House acted “without a hitch” on the GMA and TV5 franchises and many others.
“That is because their exercise of the freedom of speech and the press was never employed to mask the corporate practices of their owners that screwed the system and our people – to the tune of billions of pesos,” the Taguig-Pateros lawmaker pointed out.
He added: “While the newscast of their journalists were as feisty as ABS-CBN, and in my case - even feistier at times - their owners did not violate election laws nor sought to play Kingmaker or Kingslayer.”
During the 12-day congressional hearings jointly conducted by the House Committee on Legislative Franchise and on Good Government, Deputy Speakers Rodante Marcoleta and Dan Fernandez, together with Reps. Michael Defensor (Anak Kalusugan Partylist); Boying Remulla (NP, Cavite); Claudine Bautista (Dumper PTDA Partyilst) and Elpidio Barzaga (NUP, Cavite), took turns in raising a number of legislative franchise violations allegedly committed by the network.
Near the end of the hearings, the anti-franchise solons raised the issue of ABS-CBN’s alleged involvement in politics while claiming that it merely was exercising the freedom of the press.