Atty. Larry Gadon has filed a petition for prohibition before the Supreme Court (SC) in relation to the extension of ABS-CBN’s franchise.
Gadon asked the SC to issue a writ of prohibition against House Committee on Legislative Franchises Chairperson Franz Alvarez and House Speaker Alan Cayetano, and enjoin them against issuing directives to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) over giving a notice of extension for the network’s franchise.
“I am not against the granting of franchise to ABS-CBN if that is the will of the Congress,” the petitioner said.
“Pero ‘yung isang franchise na nagexpire at ito ay bibigyan ng special treatment of extension, ‘yun naman ang hindi na ako papayag. Ang house eh magbibigay ng instruction sa NTC (But to give special treatment of extension to an expired franchise, that I wouldn’t allow. The House giving instruction to the NTC), that’s another illegal aspect,” Gadon continued.
Lawyer Gadon also pointed out the questionable issuance of a letter by the House of Representatives to the NTC which directs it to create and order a provisional authority.
There were also alleged defects in the steps of the committee such as ignorance of the law, usurpation of power, grave abuse of discretion, and violation of the separation of powers of the government.
The petitioner asked the SC’s intervention to direct the respondents to cease and desist from pursuing the content of the letter’s directive or instructions.
“‘Yung (The) franchise should emanate from the House, so hindi nila dapat na ibato ‘yung (so they should not pass the) burden of giving an extension to the executive branch;. Kasi ang mangyayari naman magiging iligal yung gagawin ng executive (if that happens, the executive’s move will become illegal),” Gadon said.
The petitioner’s camp also urged the house committee to recall their letter to the NTC, and asked to hand down NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba a temporary restraining order that would keep him from complying with the requests of Alvarez and Cayetano.
Meanwhile, ACT Teachers Party-list France Castro said it is not stated in the law that NTC has the power to provide provisional authority to any media entities, including ABS-CBN. – Report from Kenneth Paciente
