During the Senate’s plenary session on Wednesday, January 27, Anak Kalusugan Party list Rep. Mike Defensor raised a point of order, insisting that senators should decide on the matter of House Bill No. 6732 or the ABS-CBN franchise which has been on the plenary’s unfinished business since 2020.
Throughout the chamber’s plenary session this afternoon, Defensor insisted that they tackle the pending bill regarding the Kapamilya network’s franchise. This particular bill aims to grant ABS-CBN a temporary franchise to operate for six months. However, HB No. 6732 would have been effective during its network’s hearings.
“Mr. Speaker, I would like to raise a point of order that the unfinished business of the ABS-CBN franchise be decided first before we take up any issue in plenary,” said Defensor.
Still, the Anak Kalusugan representative stood his ground stating that before tackling other matters, they should probe on unfinished matters such as the temporary license of ABS-CBN.
“Malinaw na malinaw na nakasaad sa calendar of business natin na bago pag-usapan ang business of the day, bago pag-usapan ang anumang debate sa anumang batas ay tapusin muna natin ang consideration ng mga items o mga batas sa ilalim ng unfinished business,” he added.
Meanwhile, Presiding officer Deputy Speaker Isidro Ungab did not take Defensor’s point of order well. Floor leader Mike Arroyo also responded to Defensor’s point of order stating that what the plenary was deliberating were businesses for Thursday and Friday based on the motion of Acting Deputy Majority Leader Xavier Jesus Romualdo.
Also, the motion of Romualdo did not receive any objection that is why the plenary proceeded to discuss matters for Thursday and Friday.
Still, despite numerous pending matters, Defensor only pushed HB No. 6732 in Wednesday’s session. He objected, claiming that the “point of order” should be given importance since it is of highest hierarchy.
“I assert that the committee report conducted by the Committee of the Whole has been submitted for the longest time. Nandito na sa atin yan, the unfinished business of the ABS-CBN franchise,” Defensor said.
“And I’m calling that we either affirm the committee report and do away with that unfinished business before we continue with the other businesses of the day that we are considering as a plenary,” he added.
Presiding officer Deputy Speaker Isidro Ungab, turned down the point of order of Defensor and affirmed Arroyo’s explanation.
Defensor despite being turned down by Ungab, appealed the latter’s decision. After a discussion among fellow lawmakers, during the suspension of the session, the chamber came up with a decision to take up unfinished business on Monday next week.
“It was already agreed upon with the Hon. Defensor that the assurance of the distinguished deputy majority leader is official: that we will take up items in the unfinished business by Monday. We will start taking them up,” said Senior Deputy Majority Leader Jesus Crispin Remulla, who took over the majority floor leadership.
Many politicians such as Quezon City Rep. Kit Belmonte have sought clarification regarding Defensor’s decision to prioritize ABS-CBN’s temporary franchise. Although Defensor insisted that they tackle unfinished or pending matters before starting with new ones, Belmonte stated that they are not required to do so. This is because there maybe special reasons as to why these matters were not taken up.
House Bill No. 7632 was originally filed by former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and seven other lawmakers in May 2020 to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise while the Committee on Legislative Franchises was deliberating on the measures on whether to renew the original franchise of the network for another 25 years.
Though it was approved by the Committee of the Whole, even reaching its second reading on May 13, 2020, and eight days after ABS-CBN went off-air, it was reverted to the plenary in order for lawmakers to attend on additional interpellation and amendments.
Cayetano then decided to just consider the proposals of granting the network its 25-year franchise rather than giving the network a provisional one, thus HB 7632 was left pending on the floor.
However, after a lengthy series of hearings, the House franchise later on rejected the franchise renewal bid of the TV station.
Defensor has suggested a solution to speed up the revival of ABS-CBN’s franchise bill. He said that in order to speed things up, authors should pull-out previously denied or pending bills to make way for fresh bills.
“Ano ang pinakamadaling solusyon kung gusto nila ulit simulan ito para sa committee? Lahat ng mga original na nag-author from Day 1, yung labindalawa na gumawa ng renewal of franchise should all withdraw and a new franchise law should be filed,” Defensor said.
He also assured that the rejected ABS-CBN franchise bill has not vanished because it remains as an ‘unfinished business’.
This is an unexpected turn of events since last year, Defensor was among the 70 congressmen who voted “Yes” to reject ABS-CBN’s franchise application and one of ABS-CBN’s staunchest opponents.
