ABS-CBN Corp. stopped broadcasting on its TV and radio stations on May 5, 2020 after the National Telecommunications Commission issued a cease and desist order. The network's franchise had lapsed on May 4 without action by the House of Representatives.

A labor group says it continues to support the re-opening of the ABS-CBN Corp. through the enactment of pending bills at the Lower House for its renewed fresh 25-year franchise.

"While we recognize the justness of the previous labor cases being involved by the ABS-CBN management to their contractual workers in the past, we believe that there were proper and legitimate forum and venue where labor disputes were being settled including the Department of Labor and Employment through its National Labor Relations Commission, National Conciliation and Mediation Boards among other local courts," says Defend Jobs Philippines.

Solicitor General Jose Calida declines the invitation to attend the House of Representatives hearing on the pending bills concerning the legislative franchise of ABS-CBN.

In a letter addressed to Rep. Franz Alvarez (Palawan), chair of the House committee on legislative franchises, Calida notes that his office had filed a quo warranto petition questioning the validity of ABS-CBN's franchise before the Supreme Court.

"The sub judice rule prohibits the undersigned, as the statutory counsel of both the Republic and the NTC, from sharing views and recommendations to relative merits of G.R. No. 251358 and G.R. No. 252119, respectively," Calida says.

Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano says they have decided to forego with the provisional franchise for broadcast giant ABS-CBN until Oct. 31, 2020. 

“I together with the House of Representatives leadership have decided to forego with the provisional franchise and immediately proceed with the hearings for the full 25-year renewal application of the ABS-CBN franchise,” says Cayetano.

Solicitor General Jose Calida declines to attend the Senate hearing on the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN as the issues to be discussed are prohibited from public discussion outside the court.

The issues on supposed violations of ABS-CBN's franchise are pending before the Supreme Court.

"Thus, these bring the case under the sub judice rule which prohibits the Solicitor General as petitioner and officer of the court from sharing his views and commenting on the merits of said case to maintain 'the dignity and authority of the court' in the administration of impartial justice," Calida says in a statement Tuesday.

The House of Representatives legislative francise committee will look into labor issues, tax evasion cases, citizenship of ABS-CBN chairman emeritus Gabby Lopez when it hears the franchise application of ABS-CBN.

According to a report from The STAR, the House panel will also discuss the network's issuance of Philippine depository receipts to non-Filipino citizens, operations in pay-per-view channel and supposed political biases in coverage.

These issues, however, have already been tackled in Senate in February, wherein the Department of Labor and Employment, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Justice and National Telecommunications Commission already cleared ABS-CBN of these allegations.