(Eagle News) — Isabela Rep. Antonio Albano on Thursday, Feb. 13, denied getting any pressure from President Rodrigo Duterte on the issue of the renewal of ABS-CBN’s legislative franchise.
In a statement, Albano, the vice-chair of the House committee on legislative franchises which is handling the network’s franchise renewal application, said the “President has never interfered and does not intend to interfere in the business of congress.”
“He values the separation of powers and has much respect for us to do so,” he said.
According to Albano, “the President is right in saying that media has an obligation to serve the public by making sure that they don’t misuse their privilege in spreading false or fake news.”
He said although there is such a thing as press freedom, this right is, after all, “not absolute.”
“And when the right to speak is used for false news and slander the inherent basic rights of any person, then the freedom of speech becomes libelous and can be curtailed by the government…And that their franchise defines clearly that they should uphold true public service, will not break any laws, and should not get politicized,” Albano said.
“I never said that President Duterte directly pressured us congressman, and I clarified that by saying that: ‘In fairness to the President, he never called any of us congressmen, and never issued any marching orders to tell us what to do’,” Albano added.
