MANILA – State lawyers have asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to grant the appeal of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to uphold its decision that denied the application of News and Entertainment Network Corp. (Newsnet) for a local multi-point distribution system (LMDS).
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), representing the NTC, filed a manifestation before the CA on Monday “to take judicial notice” of the Office of the President (OP) decision dated March 31, 2023 dismissing News and Entertainment Network Corp. (Newsnet)’s appeal.
The LMDS would enable Newsnet, an affiliate of NOW Corp., to deliver interactive pay television and multimedia services after its legislative franchise expired on Aug. 9, 2021.
The expiration "effectively disqualified it from commercially operating radio transmitters and receivers, including an LMDS to deliver an interactive pay television and multimedia services, and being allocated with any radio frequency."
The OP’s decision came after the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) ruled that applications involving radio frequency assignments is not within the coverage of Republic Act No. 11032, or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Delivery of Government Services Act. Rather, it is a sole function of the NTC.
The OSG asked the CA to set aside its 2022 ruling, which directed the NTC to automatically approve the application of Newsnet.
ARTA recalled Newsnet’s Declaration of Completeness in a resolution dated June 17, 2022, or barely a month before the CA decision came out, invalidating its Feb. 12, 2020 order.
“Humbly, with three government agencies – ARTA, the DOJ, and the Office of the President – echoing the same position that: first, ARTA had no jurisdiction over the assignment of frequencies; second, recall of ARTA’s Order dated 12 February 2020 was only proper having been rendered without jurisdiction; and, third, the expiration of petitioner’s franchise rendered its application moot, respondents reiterate its plea for the Honorable Court to reconsider and set aside its decision dated 20 July 2022,” the OSG said in the manifestation signed by Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra.
The OSG likewise said Newsnet is resorting to forum shopping because while the case is pending with the CA, the company “continuously commenced other acts, that is, pursued parallel remedies before other government agencies with the same end-goal – to reinstate and enforce the now abandoned issuance of ARTA or ARTA’s Order dated 12 February 2020.” (PNA)
