SUMMARY
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ABS-CBN is looking at a shutdown for the next two years or the remainder of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term.
That is unless the wind direction changes.
But the direction of the wind cannot change fast enough for a group of people who launched a movement PIRMA Kapamilya.
They want to take matters into their own hands and pull off a rarely-exercised People’s Initiative to enact the law that will give ABS-CBN its franchise.
People’s Initiative is no easy feat. The first hurdle is a high mountain – signatures of at least 10% of all registered voters in the Philippines, and these need to be verified as authentic before the proposed law could be taken to a vote via a referendum.
There are also some legal questions about whether ABS-CBN’s franchise law falls under Republic Act 6735.
Past attempts at People’s Initiative have been for charter change.
In 2006, the Supreme Court promulgated the landmark decision Lambino vs Comelec which ruled that People’s Initiative cannot be used to make revisions on the Constitution. It was a narrowly decided vote, 8-7.
Would a People’s Initiative for ABS-CBN open doors to reversing Lambino vs Comelec?
We have PIRMA Kapamilya’s co-convenor Atty Eirene Jhone Aguila in this podcast episode.
Listen to past episodes:
- Episode 1 Part 1: Supreme Court’s most controversial decisions
- Episode 1 Part 2: Department of Justice’s evolving definition of warrantless arrests
- Episode 2: The rule of law in the time of the coronavirus
- Episode 3: Pandemic and the great wall of free speech
- Episode 4: Will petition to disclose Duterte health work?
- Episode 5: Legal difficulties of a prisoner mass release
- Episode 6: Breaking down the ABS-CBN franchise legal and political issues
- Episode 7: ABS-CBN and the 3 tangled branches of government
- Episode 8: Are extraordinary writs still effective in the time of Duterte?
- Episode 9: Dissecting anti-terror bill and threats to freedoms
- Episode 10: The problems with the Cybercrime Law
- Episode 11: Can we trust the gov’t panel probing drug war deaths?
- Episode 12: Why press freedom is legally protected
If you have tips and suggestions for episodes, email the host at lian.buan@rappler.com. – Rappler.com
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