Embattled media giant ABS-CBN may be back on-air in June, said House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday after Congress granted the company a provisional license to resume broadcast until Oct 31.
Cayetano said in an interview on ABS-CBN’s digital program Teleradyo that DZMM, the company’s AM radio station, will also resume broadcast on the airwaves — that is, if President Rodrigo Duterte signs off on the bill approved by the House of Representatives.
“If everything goes well, God willing, we will finish the final reading on Monday, and transmit this [order] on Tuesday to the Senate. If Senate can finish in a week, [then] the week after next, [then ABS-CBN] may be back on air by the first week of June,” he said.
Read: BREAKING: Congress grants ABS-CBN provisional franchise to resume broadcast
The House of Representatives yesterday granted the media company the long-drawn-out provisional license to operate through House Bill 6732. However, Duterte remains an obstacle, especially since the chief executive said multiple times that he would block any efforts to grant ABS-CBN a new franchise.
Duterte has carried a grudge against the station for awhile after it refused to run his 2016 ad campaign. The president also alleged that the media company had been running reports which portrayed his government in a negative light. Cayetano himself publicly admitted that he has “personal objections” over renewing ABS-CBN’s franchise.
However, Cayetano said that despite the president’s very public dislike of the company, Duterte will exercise “fairness” in approving the provisional license.
“I’m not sure if [Duterte] will veto [the bill] or not, but from what I know from about the President, he is a lawyer, so he will choose fairness and due process,” Cayetano said in English and Filipino.
Cayetano earlier said that the provisional license was signed by Congress to give lawmakers enough time to discuss the pending bills that seek to give the company a new franchise.
The station’s forced shutdown took its 42 TV stations as well as 23 FM and AM radio stations off the air on May 5, including TV station Channel 2. Like DZMM, ABS-CBN’s flagship news program TV Patrol last week made its comeback on digital platforms, a clever loophole the media company took as a congressional license isn’t needed for digital broadcasts.
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The National Telecommunications Commission abruptly shut down the network after failing to give a provisional license to ABS-CBN, shortly after they were warned by Solicitor General Jose Calida that they will face graft charges should they grant the company the temporary permit. Calida has accused ABS-CBN of being foreign-owned, which violates the terms of its franchise, an allegation that the company has denied.
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