By Rosario The bullet train that carried the proposed grant of a five-month provisional legislative franchise for ABS-CBN has stopped as it transformed into a “misdirected locomotive.” Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman
(FEDERICO CRUZ / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) This was how Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman described the fate of House Bill 6732 in the House of Representatives after lawmakers decided to recall its second reading approval on Monday. During the plenary debate on the bill that Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano authored, congressmen closely allied to him moved to further slow down plenary action on HB 6732 by reverting the measure for deliberation before the Committee on Games and Amusement where 12 ABS-CBN bills are pending since last year. Cavite Rep. Abraham Tolentino, chairman of the House Committee on Accounts, said he finds no reason to rush HB 6732 that proposes to grant ABS-CBN a provisional franchise to operate until October 31 while Congress debates on bills giving it another 25 years to operate. Tolentino asked whether there is a precedent for the grant to a franchise applicant a temporary authority to operate. Responding to the administration lawmaker’s query, Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte, principal sponsor of the measure, disclosed that the embattled network’s “predecessor”, the Bolinao Electronics Corporation had the same privilege when it was issued a temporary permit to operate on June 4, 1950. Reps. Teodorico Haresco (PDP-Laban, Aklan) and Jonathan Sy-Alvarado (NUP, Bulacan) batted for the reversion of the bill to the games and amusement panel chaired by Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez. Haresco said the House should not lose sight of the fact that there are a number of urgent measures requiring the chamber’s urgent attention in the “post COVID-19 scenario.” ON the other hand, Sy-Alvarado, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government, noted that the ABS-CBN issue has “consumed too much of the House’s time” which could have been allotted in acting on important legislative proposals related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lagman lamented that the enactment of HB 6732 has been slowed down when questions surfaced about the constitutionality of passing it on first and second reading last Wednesday. “Unfortunately, instead of publicly admitting the bill’s flawed passage on second reading, the House leadership proffered that the bill was being recalled to allow members of the House to further interpellate and propose amendments,” said Lagman. He called on Cayetano “not to lose control of the bill’s intent, direction and eventual approval this week” notwithstanding moves to refer the measure back to the legislative franchise panel. “The proposed provisional franchise cannot be abandoned as it has given hope to the resumption of ABS-CBN’s operations for the benefit of the public and the network’s employees,” Lagman said. He added: “Any abandonment will gravely compound the inordinate delay in the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise.”