Malacañang on Tuesday said it respects the decision of the Supreme Court to dismiss the quo warranto case filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida in February against broadcasting giant ABS-CBN.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said Malacañang would leave it to Calida to “decide on his next legal steps.”
“We respect the decision of the High Court, a separate and co-equal branch of government, on the quo warranto case filed against ABS-CBN Corporation,” Roque said in a statement.
“Meanwhile on the issue of renewal of ABS-CBN franchise, we consider this a prerogative of Congress, which is presently deliberating on the matter,” he added.
Roque’s statement came after the Supreme Court dismissed Calida’s call to revoke ABS-CBN’s franchise, “on the ground of mootness” as ABS-CBN’s franchise had already expired on May 4.
ABS-CBN went off air on May 5 after being issued a cease-and-desist order by the National Telecommunications Commission.
Calida in February filed the quo warranto case seeking to revoke ABS-CBN’s franchise, accusing the network of violations of the ban on foreign ownership in mass media under the 1987 Constitution, among others. John Ezekiel J. Hirro