The House of Representatives will not tackle the bill seeking to renew the franchise of television giant ABS-CBN before the end of 2019.
House Committee on Legislative Franchises Chairman Franz Alvarez told CNN Philippines that there will be no scheduled hearings on the network’s franchise until the end of this year’s Congress session.
The lower house is set to take a break on December 20 ahead of the Christmas season.
In a previous interview with House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, he said that there is a possibility for ABS-CBN franchise to be discussed before 2019 ends.
Cayetano, however, expressed his reservations on renewing the network’s franchise for another 25 years.
ABS-CBN’s franchise is set to expire on March 30, 2020.
President Rodrigo Duterte recently expressed his intention not to sign the bill renewing the network’s franchise.
“Ang inyong franchise mag-end next year [Your franchise will end next year]. If you are expecting na ma-renew ‘yan, I’m sorry. You’re out. I will see to it that you’re out,” Duterte said.
The President repeatedly said that the network did not air his Php2 million worth of airtime and commercials during the campaign and chose to air former Senator Antonio Trillanes’ ad with children.
There are about 5 bills pending in Congress seeking to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise.
