Following the Senate’s move, Lipa Rep. and Deputy Speaker Vilma Santos-Recto has also filed a new ABS-CBN franchise renewal bill.
On Monday, January 18, Santos-Recto’s House Bill 8298 filed on January 5 went on first reading at the House’s plenary session.
The new bill seeks to renew the Kapamilya network’s franchise and give another 25-years permit to broadcast on free TV.
This latest move from the House was in response to the Senate’s fresh move to revive the process of the ABS-CBN franchise application.
At the start of the year, Senate President Tito Sotto filed Senate Bill 1967 which aims to give ABS-CBN another fresh 25-years franchise to operate.
Sotto however knew that they still have to wait for Congress to pass the franchise bill before they can act on the upper house.
Meanwhile, in her bill, the actress-congresswoman argued that TV is still the preferred medium of most Filipinos and the ABS-CBN continues to reach out to as many people as possible.
“ASB-CBN is the Philippines’ largest entertainment and media conglomerate in terms of revenue, operating income, net income, assets, equity, market capitalization, and the number of employees.”
“Despite the growing popularity of social media, television still remains as a preferred mass medium in our provinces and far-flung areas,”
“ABS-CBN has remained steadfast in its commitment to reach out to as many Filipinos as possible by delivering their quality core programs closer to our countrymen by taking advantage of emerging broadcast technologies,” the bill said
ABS-CBN has been in shutdown since May 5, 2020 following the expiration of its franchise and the subsequent rejection of their franchise application by the 70 Cayetano-led Congressmen.
Santos-Recto meanwhile was one of the 11 who voted in favor of granting ABS-CBN’s franchise during the voting last July 10, 2020.
