"There is really just one question to be answered: Why should you be granted the privilege of having a franchise?"
"There is really just one question to be answered: Why should you be granted the privilege of having a franchise?"
The die is cast. Or, as our bar confidants would say over whisky, the party's over.
That's as far as the operation of the ABS-CBN radio and television broadcast stations is concerned with the expiration of the company's franchise last May 4. Until the media behemoth obtains a new franchise from Congress or, alternatively, acquires an existing one, there is nothing anybody can do to get it on air all over again.
Those who continue to pressure, let's call it for what it really is, the NTC or Congress or President Duterte or the courts via a TRO to issue a provisional authority or permit to operate by whatever means (a joint resolution was recently filed in the House calling for such an issuance) are whistling in the dark. There is just no way that will happen at all.
No less than former SC Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has dismissed such a thought when he expressly said: "When the franchise expires, it is as if there is no franchise at all. So, you cannot argue that there was a prior franchise. Well, a prior franchise is prior, it's past, now there is none. And the requirement for a provisional authority is there must be a franchise."
That temporary restraining order which was floated by some hacks immediately after the cease and desist order was issued even using an alleged statement from former SC Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to that effect, never got off the ground. The company's lawyers must have advised the owners to back off on pain of being laughed at as desperate or, worse, ignorant.
As former SC Associate Justice and currently JBC member Noel Tijam correctly noted: "A TRO is never issued to confer or vest a right or interest which is no longer existing. Since the franchise has expired, there is no right or interest to preserve or retain. It would be a different matter if the SC is of the mindset that existing jurisprudence should be reversed, in that, despite the expiration of a franchise, the applicant has a pending application in Congress which gives it an inchoate interest that needs to be protected. That would be a long stretch as it assumes that majority of the Court would like to set aside Judicial precedent."
So what should ABS CBN and its advocates do? They cannot forever be blaming NTC Commissioner Cordova as a "patsy" and easily bullied by Solicitor General Jose Calida. Nor can they claim that he has no word of honor for reneging on an earlier pledge, under oath at that, as some senators have been reminding anybody who cared to listen, to issue a provisional authority if Congress orders him to.
Congress did not give him that cover. The Senate resolution expressing that body's "desire to let ABS CBN continue with its operation beyond its franchise's expiration" was just that – a resolution. Similarly, the letter of Speaker Cayetano and House Franchise Committee Chairman to the NTC to issue a provisional authority while that body was deliberating on the ABS CBN franchise was just that – a letter. These could not possibly provide the NTC with enough legal ground to defy the plain ruling of the High Tribunal: no franchise, no provisional authority. And, they should already distance themselves from those crying “stifling of the freedom of expression" or “violation of human rights" or depriving the poor of their only means of entertainment during the lockdown or even that breastbeating “we have been doing a great job helping our people in this pandemic", etc. etc. as these will only expose for all the world to see that this is pure and simple zarzuela, a circus with no real value.
Instead of beating around the bush, trying to pressure or wiggle its way out of the quagmire with all kinds of non-arguments, the media giant and its advocates would be in a better position to serve the Filipino people and the cause of justice and press freedom they mouth at every turn, to get real by simply filing a new application, and go through the rigors of submitting the records being required of them and answering the one and only question being asked of all those applying for franchises under the law: Why should you be granted the privilege of having a franchise?
I am sure they have ready answers to all the issues which have been hovering over their franchise since they first filed their application for renewal in 2014. In fact, most of those have been enumerated in the Quo Warranto petition filed by the Solicitor General before the Supreme Court early this year.
Now, regarding that petition. Again, the company should answer the issues raised instead of merely asking the High Tribunal to dismiss it as moot and academic as seems to be their wont, since the franchise has already expired. If that is their trick, then they should be ready to answer the same questions raised in the petition once they go to Congress to apply for a new franchise. Or, even to take over an existing one, as they will again be asked: Why do you deserve to be given the privilege to have a franchise to operate at all?
On that score, quite apart from answering the issues raised on the company's misuse of its franchise, the issues raised by labor, the original issue of ownership and payment of debts to government banks, its operational lapses and related concerns, they will then be asked whether in issuing Philippine Depository Receipts (PDRs) against shares in ABS CBN which found their way to foreign hands, they ultimately violated the Constitutional prohibition against foreign ownership of media entities..That legal issue, if not decided by the Supreme Court, will hover over the grant of a new franchise or the use of an existing one. If the SC decides that it was violative of the Constitution, then that's the end of the line for ABS CBN.
As Justice Tijam noted in an earlier post: "Law violators and law breakers are not entitled to a franchise. "
