NTC urged to stop new licenses to firms that may lose franchise

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has been urged to withhold the grant of new licenses and permits to a company whose congressional franchise may be in danger of revocation.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza have asked the NTC to stop issuing new licenses to direct broadcast service provider Media-Scape (formerly GV Broadcasting System) while a bill seeking to repeal its congressional franchise is pending.

In a letter to NTC Commissioner Ruel Canobas, Lagman said he has co-authored and co-sponsored Plaza’s House Bill (HB) 5028, seeking to cancel MediaScape’s congressional franchise.

“I join Rep. Plaza in his request to the Commission that pending the passage of this bill, the NTC should desist from granting any new permits or licenses to MediaScape, particularly with respect to the new owners’ supposed plans to engage in the direct-to-home broadcast and mobile TV businesses,” Lagman said in his Oct. 6 letter to Canobas.

Lagman is chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that screens the annual budget of the NTC and the entire Department of Transportation and Communications.

MediaScape has a pending application with the NTC for a license to operate and maintain a digital mobile TV broadcasting system.

A third member of Congress, Catan-duanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, earlier welcomed the NTC order for MediaScape to explain why its franchise is being revoked by Congress.

Santiago, a former NTC commissioner himself, said Congress “has had enough of franchised entities brazenly violating the conditions of their congressional concessions.”

Santiago, now chairman of the House information and communications technology committee, said he is counting on the NTC to use MediaScape’s case to teach all franchised entities a lesson, “so that they will dutifully comply with the terms of their legislative grants going forward.”

Canobas earlier ordered MediaScape to answer all the issues raised by Plaza in HB 5028. The NTC chief’s order was contained in a letter to Orlando Vea, president of MediaQuest Holdings Inc., parent firm of MediaScape.

According to Plaza, MediaScape and its direct-to-home broadcast franchise were unlawfully sold on at least two occasions, without the prior approval of Congress. Under the law, franchised entities cannot lawfully transfer ownership or control of a franchise without the consent of Congress.

Plaza also accused former NTC commissioner Ponciano “Jacky” Cruz Jr. of “self-dealing” while he was at the helm of agency. Cruz, who served as NTC chief for less than six months, irregularly granted a “midnight” satellite TV license to Media-Scape. It turned out that Cruz was one of the five members of the board of directors of SATVentures Inc., the controlling stockholder of MediaScape, Plaza said.

MediaQuest, a holding entity wholly owned by the Beneficial Trust Fund of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), acquired GV Broadcasting for P450 million last year.

PLDT had planned to use MediaScape to pursue new ventures into digital mobile TV and Internet Protocol TV as well as DTH broadcasting via satellite.