The Makabayan bloc in Congress composed of Bayan Muna, ACT, Gabriela, and Kabataan party lists have asked the committee on legislative franchises to present their TWG report on the ABS-CBN franchise application to the plenary.
Reps. Carlo Zarate, Eufemia Cullamat, Ferdinand Gaite, Arlene Brosas, France Castro and Sarah Elago sent a letter to legislative franchises committee chair Chikoy Alvarez conveying their request for a plenary debate on the ABS-CBN franchise.
“May we, therefore, respectfully move and pray for the Committee on Legislative Franchise to submit the said Committee (Technical Working Group) Report and the adopted Committee Resolution to the plenary for ratification of its decision,” said in the letter.
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According to the group, the TWG report “is full of uncertainties and doubts that it is a wonder how a conclusion was reached when the whole Report was littered with terms like ‘it appears’, ‘it seems’, and a plethora of insecure statements.” that’s why it should be resolved through a plenary debate and voting.
“The next step, therefore, is to resolve (these) insecurities and doubts through a Plenary debate and approval.
“We, thus submit, that the TWG report and the Committee Resolution, which now stands as the Committee Report, requires the approval of the House before it can be implemented,” they added
“The Committee on Legislative Franchises may no longer tackle the franchise bills because they have been laid on the table precisely because it is now up to the Plenary to decide on the issue,”
“Majority of the 305 members of the House of Representatives are being deprived of the opportunity to deliberate and even vote on the said issue, in [the] representation of their constituents who were badly affected by the Committee decision.” the letter continued.
That was also the point raised by Buhay party list Rep. Lito Atienza. In a recent report, Atienza called on the ABS-CBN franchise issue to be elevated to the plenary. He said the 305 lawmakers should be made to vote on the measure as opposed to the few lawmakers from the committee level.
Meanwhile, aside from the route being taken by the lawmakers of the House of Representatives, several civic groups are working on using People’s Initiative to push for the ABS-CBN franchise renewal.
UST Law Professor Atty. Enrique dela Cruz, initially suggested the people’s initiative, citing Article 6, Section 1 of the Philippine Constitution, and Republic Act 6735 or The Initiative and Referendum Act.
It was then picked up by a volunteer group led by the Free Legal Assistance Group which aimed at getting the required numbers of signatures within the year.
For the initiative to pass it needs to get 3% registered voters’ signature for each legislative district and at least 10 percent of the total voting population or 6.5 million voters.
Since the ABS-CBN shut down on May 5 and the eventual denial of their franchise on July 10, ABS-CBN didn’t have a choice but to start the process of retrenchment. Several business units have already announced the cessation of their operations which include ABS-CBN Current Affairs division, ABS-CBN Sports, ABS-CBN regional network group, and MOR 101.9.
Some of the most notable personalities that were already retrenched are Korina Sanchez and Ces Drilon.
