Charles Teves
Various legal experts think that the House Franchise Committee hearings were set up from the very beginning for ABS-CBN to be denied a congressional franchise.
Former Supreme Court Spokesperson Atty. Theodore Te alluded that there must have been unpublicized conditions that ABS-CBN disagreed with causing its application for a new franchise getting denied.
“Pinahaba, hinayaan na mawala yung prangkisa. Klarong klaro yung attempt na kontrolin o di kaya bigyan ng kondisyon para lang ma operate yung franchise.”
Dr. Tony La Viña of the Ateneo school of government thinks that the votes were not personally decided but there existed a consensus among lawmakers.
“This is not a conscience vote but a party-lying vote. This is the majority following orders to deny the franchise,” La Viña said.
“It has nothing to do with law or with the process. Politics trumps law, politics trumps ethics, politics trumps policy and it’s the case we have here,” he added.
Atty. Edre Olalia, the president of the National Union of People’s Lawyers says that being on the opposition side exposes one to a lot of possible consequences.
“The normally unacceptable, improbable, inconceivable and unexpected become the new abnormal.
“Nobody is safe and insulated from political persecution and reprisal if you fall out of grace, step on big toes, or disagree with standardization of views, news, and opinion,” he said in a statement.
The legal experts also think that this was basically an attack on press freedom.
“Some of the members of Congress were telling the network how to publish, how to broadcast, what not to broadcast, and that precisely is the guarantee of press freedom,” said Te.
“The pattern is very clear. It’s the number one newspaper, Inquirer, it’s the number one online news site, and it’s the number one broadcaster. The idea is to push you down to your knees so that everyone else realizes that these people mean business,” said La Viña.
ABS-CBN’s request for a TRO against the NTC is in danger of becoming moot and academic because there is no reason for the Supreme Court to tackle the petition since ABS-CBN will not be given a new congressional franchise.
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Ma. Soledad Margarita Deriquito-Mawis, a law professor at the Adamson University College of Law, worries more about the company’s 11,000 employees.
“Ang hirap pa naman humanap ng trabaho ngayon,” said the professor.
Dean Chel Diokno thinks it is unacceptable that Congress decided to ultimately shut down ABS-CBN when thousands have already died, with thousands more suffering due to the pandemic.
He also said that certain politicians should not be given the chance to be public servants again.
