By Hannah Torregoza
Senate minority leader Senator Franklin Drilon on Friday questioned the apparent haste in closing down ABS-CBN Corporation, lamenting the lack of concern of some sectors in the more than 11,000 employees that would be hurt in the event its franchise is not renewed.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon
(CZAR DANCEL / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Drilon reiterated there was a viable remedy to the network’s current problem on franchise renewal, and that it was within the powers of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to issue a provisional authority and allow ABS-CBN to continue to operate without a franchise while Congress is taking up the pending bills regarding the matter.
“Why are we in a hurry to close ABS-CBN? Who gets harmed if ABS-CBN is allowed to continue to operate while the matter is pending in Congress? Why are we in a hurry to close ABS-CBN?” Drilon asked.
“This issue on ABS-CBN cannot be decided in a vacuum as the retired justices want Congress to do. Our conscience will not allow us to do that, because the reality is, 11,000 jobs are on the line here,” the minority leader stressed.
The Supreme Court, Drilon pointed out, has held in various cases that: “Laws and rules should be interpreted and applied not in a vacuum or in isolated abstraction but in light of surrounding circumstances and attendant facts in order to afford justice to all.”
Drilon said to interpret it in a very strict legalistic manner in a vacuum-like the way retired justices Reynato Puno and Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez were doing will cause prejudice to the 11,000 workers of ABS-CBN.
“By their interpretation, we put at risk the livelihood of 11,000 employees and the future of their families, without giving an opportunity for a rational discussion,” he stressed.
He reiterated that there are precedents where various franchisees were allowed to keep operating with expired franchise pending renewal of their franchise, citing the case of GMA-7, Smart, among others.
"Why, all of a sudden, should we be so strict with ABS-CBN when 11,000 jobs are on the line?" he pointed out.
“Why can we not give Congress more time to decide on this? Is anybody’s interest harmed by the continuation of the operation of ABS-CBN while the matter is pending in Congress?” Drilon added.
Drilon insists there is no harm done if ABS-CBN continues to broadcast while giving time for Congress to passionately look into the franchise renewal of the network.
The senator said the opinion of Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra, as the legal counsel of the executive department, and the NTC, as the implementing agency in charge of telecommunications should be accorded due weight and consideration.
“The secretary of justice has ruled that there are sufficient equitable grounds to let ABS-CBN to continue broadcasting pending the process of renewal in Congress,” he said.
“There is no harm in letting the NTC to continue its practice of granting a provisional authority as it has done in the past,” Drilon emphasized.
Read more: Drilon files concurrent resolution, Revilla files bill for temporary remedy of ABS-CBN franchise dilemma; Drilon: ABS-CBN can continue operating under provisional authority from NTC