One of the congressmen supporting the renewal of the franchise to operate of the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday took the cudgels for the shuttered radio-broadcast network which allegedly committed “flagrant violations“ and so its franchise should not be renewed.
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro responded to the allegations of Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta during the joint hearing of the House committees on legislative franchises and on good governance and accountability last Tuesday.
Marcoleta claimed that ABS-CBN “deliberately and with impunity violated the conditions of its previous legislative franchise, more so our laws and the Constitution,” specifically citing, among others, the constitutional 50-year limit of legislative franchises.
Rodriguez said Marcoleta was wrong. “Every grant of franchise by Congress has a limit of 50 years. It is not cumulative. Congress can give 50 years in one instance and it can be extended for another 50 years and so on. However the practice is to give 25 years every instance or issuance. The Constitution is very clear,” said Rodriguez.
Marcoleta also raised during the Tuesday hearing that Congress should deny the franchise application of ABS CBN for its clear violation of the constitution requiring 100 percent Filipino ownership and management of mass media companies.
He said ABS CBN’s former president Mr. Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III was an American citizen when he took the helm of the company in 1986 as director, then president and then chairman in the later years. “It was only in 2000 that he petitioned for recognition of Filipino citizenship and was issued a certificate of recognition as a Filipino citizen in 2002.”
But in his defense for the ABS-CBN, Rodriguez said “Gabby Lopez is a dual citizen of the Philippines and The United States.”
Rodriguez said Lopez was born to Filipino parents in 1952 in the US.
“He is therefore a Filipino by birth under the jus sanguinis citizenship under our 1935 Constitution. He is also a US citizen under its jus soli citizenship. Being a Filipino citizen his ownership of ABS CBN shares before and now is valid, legal and conforms to the Constitutional mandate of 100 percent Filipino ownership of mass media.”
The ABS-CBN is expected to present its side and answer point by point the allegations raised by Marcoleta when the joint panel resumes its hearing next week.
Marcoleta earlier said that he would want to hear the answers from the ABS-CBN as the grant of legislative franchise is “merely a privilege and not a matter of right.”
“Congress has the exclusive constitutional authority to award, alter or renew this privilege when the common good so requires, as in this particular case of ABS-CBN,” Marcoleta said.
