Dasmariñas City Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. sought the reopening of a congressional investigation into the alleged violations of the law committed by media company ABS-CBN Corporation.
Barzaga Jr., who sits as vice chairperson of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises, said there was a need to revisit the issues raised against ABS-CBN during the investigation conducted by the previous Congress to determine if the company had corrected the legal infringements and the other violations that led to the denial of its legislative franchise in 2020.
“These legal and constitutional issues include the possible violations committed by ABS-CBN on the constitutional limits on foreign ownership, its reported violations of labor and tax laws, and other violations of its previous franchise. We have to find out if ABS-CBN has been following the law or continuing to violate or circumvent it,” Barzaga said.
The veteran legislator recalled that ABS-CBN had initially attempted to merge with TV-5 in a bid to ride on the legislative franchise granted to the latter. The merger was dropped when several lawmakers revealed that they planned to investigate the deal.
Following this failed merger bid, ABS-CBN has inked another agreement, this time with international cable channels Discovery Asia and the Asian Food Network.
While Barzaga said he sees no possible violation of this agreement at this time, “we do not know if there are other deals that ABS-CBN has entered into which need to be reviewed to find out if they are violating the law.”
Barzaga said a reinvestigation by Congress into ABS-CBN could even benefit the company as he recalled that no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. had said earlier that ABS-CBN would be able to secure a new franchise once all the issues against it are resolved.
The 18th Congress had denied the application of ABS-CBN for a new 25-year franchise on the ground that the firm had, among others, violated the constitutional limits on foreign ownership, as shown by its issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to foreigners.
The previous House Committee on Legislative Franchises had said this possibly violated the constitutional provision against ownership and management of mass media by foreigners.
According to the Committee, questions were also raised on the dual citizenship of ABS-CBN’s chairman emeritus, Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III; violations of its previous franchise by operating a pay-per-view channel without prior approval from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC); the use of a dummy franchise; its less than exemplary labor practices; and tax avoidance schemes.