Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman doesn't expect the country to "move on" immediately from the ABS-CBN franchise debacle.
"It would be extremely difficult for the country to instantly 'move forward' in the grave aftermath of a premeditated attack on the freedom of the press and free expression without demanding full accountability from the perpetrators of the assault," Lagman said, obviously still smarting from the House Committee on Legislative Franchises' move last Friday to strike down the Lopez-owned network's franchise application.
"While it is true that the legislature has the power to grant or deny a legislative franchise, such prerogative must not be abused by arbitrarily denying the grant or renewal of a franchise when the overriding factual and legal milieu evidently proves the applicant’s valid entitlement," he said.
Administration critic Lagman was among the television and radio giant's most ardent defenders during the 12 lengthy and much-publicized hearings of the joint House panel on the subject of its franchise renewal.
But in the words of the Legislative Franchise's committee secretary, the franchise application was effectively "killed" after House members voted in favor of adopting a technical working group's (TWG) recommendation to reject it.
Lagman didn't mince words regarding what he thought of the TWG.
"Due to the inordinate alacrity by which the hastily constituted Technical Working Group (TWG) rendered its findings and recommendations, there is reason to believe that the TWG’s report was prepared beforehand for the TWG members’ assent," he said.
According to Lagman, the TWG’s report recommending the denial of ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal "is oozing with unmitigated bias, gross partiality and baseless conjectures as it unabashedly echoed the tirades of principal oppositors to the renewal of the network’s franchise."
The decision to create a TWG was announced by the joint panel only last Thursday, or following a summation by each of the pro or anti-franchise renewal solons who wanted to speak.
Palawan 1st district Rep. Franz Alvarez chairs the Legislative Franchises panel, which carried out the joint panel hearings with the Bulacan 1st district Rep. Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado-chaired Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has asked Filipinos to move forward from the ABS-CBN issue in a statement following the vote. The network has been off the air since May 5, a day after its previous 25-year contract expired.