(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has no authority to reverse the decision of the National Telecommunications order for ABSCBN Corp. to cease operations.
This is according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who gave a television interview on Wednesday, May 6, a day after the NTC issued the cease and desist order against the media giant.
According to Roque, the President could be held liable for graft and for violation of the code of conduct for government employees if he intervened, noting that the chief executive could not exercise “appellate jurisdiction” over the decisions of the NTC, a quasi-judicial body.
He said the NTC decision could only be challenged in courts.
“(The President) cannot [reverse the NTC order]. We had thorough research on this,” Roque said.
Earlier, Sorsogon Gov. Chiz Escudero said the President could overturn the cease and desist order because the NTC was under the executive department.
The NTC is under the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
The issuance of the cease and desist order came after Solicitor General Jose Calida warned the NTC against granting ABSCBN Corp. and its affiliate, ABSCBN Convergence, provisional authorities to operate absent a franchise from Congress.
Calida had noted there was nothing in the law that said the PA could be granted without the franchise.
ABSCBN Corp.’s franchise expired on May 4, while ABSCBN Convergence’s on March 17.
