A Congress leader revived the proposed bill to grant ABS-CBN Corporation a franchise to operate.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda filed House Bill No. 11252 renewing the ABS-CBN franchise for the next 25 years.
“I believe that the free market of ideas requires competition. A virtual monopoly will not do, as far as disseminating ideas and keeping the public informed is concerned,” said Salceda, chair of the House committee on ways and means,.
“I also owe it to Albay. ABS-CBN remains the single most important news source in Albay, despite its lack of a franchise,” he added.
Salceda, citing House deliberations on the ABS-CBN franchise during the previous Congress, said the media giant “did not violate ownership restrictions and did not have pending tax liabilities.”
“The SEC and BIR have cleared ABS-CBN of the allegations against them. I was a former co-author of their franchise in the past Congress. You will remember that I even warned against the franchise rejection on grounds that it will add to COVID-19 infections due to lack of information,” he said.
In his bill, Salceda said the non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise cost some 11,000 direct jobs and “the information asymmetries that resulted from the loss of an information source caused thousands of new COVID-19 infections during the critical 2020 period.”
“Prior to the rejection of the franchise renewal, some 36 percent of Filipinos derived their news and entertainment from the channel. ABS-CBN’s extensive regional network reach was also the source for news and updates on impending disasters, making the channel crucial then to disaster risk reduction strategies at the local level.”
“Given the merits of renewing the franchise, as well as the clarifications made by government agencies over certain allegations against the grantee, this representation urges Congress to reconsider the non-renewal of the franchise by the previous Congress,” read the bill.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Salceda revives ABS-CBN bid for new legislative franchise.”
