Political vendetta hounding ABS-CBN case?

By Al S. Mendoza

 

TOMORROW, June 1, God willing, the hearing on the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN resumes in Congress.

The element of uncertainty has become imminent after initial discussions on the issue had unfolded.

Uncertain on how long the hearing will last because of two major reasons:

First, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Constitutionally correct, has allowed all factions to be heard in the Congress trial.

Democracy at work here.  Obviously.

It would surely be an eternity if all our 303 representatives will rise to speak either for or against the ABS-CBN’s bid to renew its permit to operate for another 25 years.

For the record, there are 243 congressional districts and 60 party-list representatives in the present Congress serving their three-year terms until 2022.

And second, the ABS-CBN case is also being deliberated upon in the Supreme Court, with the case expanding its scope from termination outright to operate to the issuance of a TRO (temporary restraining order) allowing the network to continue operating while its permit pends in Congress.

As we all know, the solicitor general went to the high court invoking the quo warranto petition as chief basis to stop outright the operations of ABS-CBN.

To refresh your memory, quo warranto is a special form of legal action used to resolve a dispute over whether a specific person has the legal right to hold a public office that he or she occupies.

Further, quo warranto is used to test a person’s legal right to hold an office, not to evaluate the person’s performance in the office.

That was the argument cited by the magistrates to remove Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice a couple years back.

If the same justices will submit to the quo warranto petition filed by Jose Calida, the same solicitor general that architected Sereno’s ouster, then ABS-CBN could be in deep shit.

But before the High Court could act on Calida’s petition, it received from ABS-CBN the TRO requesting the SC to  order the NTC (National Telecommunications Communication) to lift its CDO (cease and desist order) stopping the network’s operations.

Indeed, the plot thickens.  Mushy even.

But Congress can end it all in one fell swoop.

All it has to do is decide whether or not to grant ABS-CBN an extension of permit to operate by another 25 years.  Soonest.

Under the Constitution, Congress has the sole power to decide on franchises relating to airwaves/frequency operations.

Once Congress approves ABS-CBN’s franchise extension, the Senate, in accordance with the Constitution—not to mention by tradition—will most likely abide by it.

But from the looks of it, ABS-CBN seems headed to a rough sailing, judging from the initial skirmishes on the floor.

The network seems to have accumulated an army of formidable enemies at the Lower House.

Judging from recent developments, ugly mostly, it seems it is no longer press freedom but political vendetta that is at issue here.

The coming days, if not weeks, will prove critical.

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