Cavite 4th District Representative and Vice Chairperson of House Committee on Legislative Franchises Elpidio Barzaga Jr. sought to reopen a congressional investigation into the alleged violations of media giant ABS-CBN. 

“These legal and constitutional issues include the possible violations committed by ABS-CBN on the constitutional limits on foreign ownership, its reported violations of labor and tax laws, and other violations of its previous franchise. We have to find out if ABS-CBN has been following the Law or continuing to violate or circumvent it,” said Barzaga. 

He added there was a need to revisit the issues raised against ABS-CBN from the previous Congress “to determine if the company had corrected the legal infringements and the other violations that led to the denial of its legislative franchise in 2020.”

The lawmaker likewise recalled that ABS-CBN had an attempted merger deal with TV-5. ABS-CBN, however, dropped the deal to make way for inquiries from lawmakers about the merger and other concerns for the media company.  

Following the attempted deal, ABS-CBN penned another agreement with Discovery Asia and the Asian Food Network international cable channels. 

While the lawmaker said he sees no possible violation of the agreements as of the moment, “we do not know if there are other deals that ABS-CBN has entered into which need to be reviewed to find out if they are violating the law.” 

He also said a reinvestigation could “benefit the company” as he recalled President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. previously stated that ABS-CBN would be able to “secure a new franchise once all the issues against it are resolved.”

According to Barzaga, the 18th Congress denied the application of ABS-CBN for a new 25-year franchise on the ground that the firm violated the constitutional limits on foreign ownership, as shown by its issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to foreigners. 

The previous House Committee on Legislative Franchises said this “possibly violated the constitutional provision against the ownership and management of mass media by foreigners.”

To recall, ABS-CBN President Karlo Katigbak countered in 2020 that “PDRs do not result in foreign ownership of ABS-CBN. A PDR is not a share in ABS-CBN.”