DAPAT umanong bilisan na ng Kamara de Representantes ang pag-apruba sa aplikasyon ng ABS-CBN para sa renewal ng prangkisa nito.
Ayon kay Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman matagal na nitong sinasabi na ang tanging solusyon para hindi magsara ang ABS-CBN ay ang pag-apruba sa aplikasyon nito.
“The solution proffered by the House leadership on the grant of a provisional authority to the network giant by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is contrary to law and jurisprudence, as I have previously explained,” dagdag pa ng solon.
Nakasaad umano sa Section 16 ng RA 7925 (An Act to Promote and Govern the Development of Philippine Telecommunications and the Delivery of Public Telecommunications Services) na kailangan ng prangkisa para makapag-operate ang isang telecommunication entity.
“The request of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Chairman Franz Alvarez of the committee on legislative franchises to the NTC to grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate after the expiration of its franchise on 04 May 2020, and the explicit undertaking of Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova of NTC during the first and only public hearing on the franchise renewal on 10 March 2020 that the provisional authority will be granted, were all part of a charade.”
“Even the Executive, through the Solicitor General, has objected consistently to such solution.”
“The NTC’s cease and desist order against ABS-CBN’s operations dated 05 May 2020 confirms this travesty.”
Sinabi ni Lagman na walang malinaw na oposisyon sa renewal ng prangkisa kaya maaari itong madaliin ng Kamara.
“The cessation of ABS-CBN’s operations sounds the death knell of the freedom the press even as thousands of its employees and indirect workers and enterprises dependent on the broadcasting network are doomed to lose their livelihoods,” saad pa ni Lagman. “The shuttering of ABS-CBN is even more tragic because the public, now more than ever, needs and depends on its broadcast information as COVID-19 continues to rampage.”