MEDIUM RARE

Their power is absolute. Notwithstanding the sworn declarations of DOJ, SEC, BIR, BI, PEZA, living witnesses to history and other invited resource persons, these experts’ statements of facts are repudiated in favor of the “conclusions” of a three-person technical working group (TWG). Rep. Rodante Marcoleta: “It is the will of Congress that should be accorded due respect,” yet as Rep. France Castro notes, TWG meets for 45 minutes, and 15 hours later, it has published a 44-page report citing their grounds for rejecting a new franchise for ABS-CBN, one  of the TWG-3 dissenting. The next day, the committees on franchises and good government vote virtually.

Lesson #2: Never complain again that congressmen drag their feet when it comes to the legislative process. After 100 hours, 13 marathon hearings and thousands upon thousands of pages of documents demanded of network executives – those pages, in hard copy, multiplied by the number of committee members – the voting is done so swiftly that even the voters are surprised. Just as surprising, the score: 70 against, 11 for ABS. (The President’s spokesman has spoken: The committees have spoken, no room for appeal. Congress is not a court, this is the end of the road for ABS-CBN.)

Lesson #3: After the math, the logic. This historic hearing is the best proof that the power to grant a broadcast franchise should be removed from politicians. As legislators they write the laws, yes, but they are also human beings with their own personal biases, prejudices, grudges, loyalties, party agendas. They make or mock the rules, according to their predisposition.

A franchise is “not a right but a privilege” granted by the state. The air waves are owned by the state — alas, therein lies the danger. Who is the state? In America, most of whose corporate laws we adopt (and adapt), there is no law empowering congress or any such body to grant or reject a broadcasting franchise. The logic is simple: Keep politicians out, keep the air free as nature intended it.