MANILA – Cavite 4th District Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. has sought the reopening of a congressional investigation into the alleged violations committed by media company ABS-CBN Corp.
In a statement Tuesday, he cited the need to revisit the issues raised against ABS-CBN “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,” said Barzaga, vice chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Franchises.
The veteran lawmaker noted that ABS-CBN had initially attempted to merge with TV-5 to ride on the legislative franchise granted to the latter. The merger was dropped when several lawmakers disclosed that they planned to investigate the deal.
After this failed merger bid, ABS-CBN 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.”
He also said a reinvestigation by Congress into ABS-CBN could even benefit the company, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had earlier said the media company would be able to secure a new franchise “once all the issues against it are resolved.”
The 18th Congress 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 said this possibly violated the constitutional provision against the ownership and management of mass media by foreigners.
The panel said 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; the use of a dummy franchise; its less than exemplary labor practices; and tax avoidance schemes. (PNA)
