MANILA – Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the House of Representatives hearing on ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal will be “much organized” compared to the one done by the Senate.
Cayetano said the House is committed on not allowing ABS-CBN to go off the air even for a minute, while they have yet to start tackling the bills on the network’s franchise renewal.
“There’s no question ‘yung iba nagmamalasakit lang. There’s no question there are solid supporters of ABS-CBN. But ‘yung iba OA na e. Parang doomsday na ang ginagawa para lang makapagsipsip. Hindi yun ang proseso,” Cayetano said.
“Bakit nag-hearing ang Senate? Anong purpose? Parang nag-aattendance sa ABS-CBN. ‘Hello, I’m here, I’m for you. Kasi sabi nila it’s not for the franchise kasi hindi pa sila pwedeng mag-hearing sa franchise, nandito pa [sa House]. So what’s it for?” he added.
Cayetano said the ABS-CBN franchise renewal is an important issue but not urgent as there are other more pressing legislation that the congressmen needs to work on first.
“The ABS-CBN has 11,000 jobs but the CITIRA (Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act) can produce 1.5 million jobs,” he said.
“Having said that, mabuti na rin na nag-hearing, mabuti na rin na pinag-uusapan ‘yung mga issues, but I can promise you, sa House, mas organized ‘yung hearing. Mas malinaw ‘yung issues bago pa mag-start ‘yung hearing, at lahat ‘yung pro and con, management, employees and viewers will be given an opportunity to be heard,” he added.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, for his part, also mocked the Senate hearing on Monday as he described the senators as like “headless chickens who don’t know what they’re doing.”
“You know, I was watching them (senators). They spent two hours discussing whether they have authority to do that or not. I cannot even understand … hindi pala kayo sigurado ng trabaho ninyo, eh bakit pinagdedebatehan pa ninyo,” said Panelo.
“The very purpose for which they call that committee hearing, mukhang dalawang oras silang nagdi-debate whether do we have authority or not,” he added. “They wasted two hours debating on something that they should have known already.”/PN
