SOTTO AND SANTOS FOR ABS-CBN FRANCHISE REVIEW
Written by RB Jane
Star for all Season and Deputy Speaker of the Philippine House of Representatives Vilma Santos, formally re-file a bill today January 19, 2021. The bill is aiming for a review for the ABS-CBN Kapamilya franchise.
This is the second bill submitted for the Kapamilya franchise review following Senate President Vicente Sotto’s filling last January 4.
Santos show strong support to the cited point of Senate President Sotto expressing his reason for filling a new bill for review of ABS-CBN franchise.
“I noticed the TV stations have been replacing their news programs with animes. It means competition is absent and mediocrity is creeping in because of the absence of a strong competitor like ABS-CBN,” says Sotto.
“I am re-filing the bill seeking for the renewal for another 25 years of the ABS-CBN franchise. I filed it the last time and I continue to believe that it is the right thing to do,” Santos said last January 4.
“I am hoping that after I refilled this bill, the Committee on Rules will immediately act on this counterpart measure of Senate President Sotto’s bill so that it will hopefully be referred to the Committee on Legislative Franchises the soonest,” Santos added.
Santos also pointed how ABS-CBN network programs and operations reaching to far areas and to the regions when and during calamities.
Just like Sotto, Recto said ABS-CBN’s franchise has to be renewed because TV remains the preferred mass medium of Filipinos, especially those in far-flung areas.
“ABS-CBN has remained steadfast in its commitment to reach out to as many Filipinos as possible by delivering their quality core program closer to our countrymen by taking advantage of emerging broadcast technologies,” she added.
“Despite the growing popularity of social media, television still remains as a preferred mass medium in our province and other far-flung areas,” Santos-Recto said in the explanatory note of her House Bill No. 8298.