PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte signed laws renewing the franchises of four broadcasting companies, including El Shaddai’s Delta Broadcasting System, Inc. (DBS) and Ultrasonic Broadcasting System, Inc. (UBSI), which is owned by the SYSU Group of Companies, a food importer and distributor, officials said.
Mr. Duterte signed on April 17 Republic Act (RA) No. 11303 renewing for another 25 years the franchise granted to DBS “to establish, maintain, and operate radio and television broadcasting stations” in the country.
He also signed RA 11301 for the renewal of the UBSI franchise.
Other franchises renewed on April 17 include Filipinas Broadcasting Network, Inc. or FBN (RA 11300) and Peñafrancia Broadcasting Corp. or PBN (RA 111302).
DBS, which is owned by El Shaddai leader Mariano Z. Velarde, is based in Makati City. The company has been operating DWXI 1314 kHz AM, a radio station, since 1981. It also runs the television station DBS TV Channel 35.
UBSI operates at least 10 Energy FM radio stations, with operations in Davao City, Cebu City, Naga City in Camarines Sur, and Dagupan before expanding to Metro Manila in 2003.
FBN is a provincial network, which opened its first station DZGE-AM in Naga City in the 1960s, and followed by DZRC-AM in Legazpi City. The company, which was organized by the late Bicol Rep. Edmund B. Cea, also opened several radio stations outside the Bicol region.
PBN, formerly affiliated with TV5 Network, is a Bicol-based radio/television media network.
Their franchises, according to the law, takes effect for a period of 25 years “unless sooner revoked and cancelled.”
A franchise will be deemed “ipso facto revoked in the event the grantee fails to operate for two years.”
The grantees’ responsibilities include providing free of charge “adequate public service time which is reasonable and sufficient to enable the government, through the broadcasting stations or facilities of the grantee[s], to reach pertinent populations… on important public issues and relay important public announcements and warnings concerning public emergencies and calamities, as necessity, urgency, or law may require.”
They should also “promote audience sensibility and empowerment… and not use [their] stations or facilities for the broadcasting of obscene or indecent language, speech, acts or scenes; or for the dissemination of deliberately false information or willful misrepresentation, to the detriment of the public interest; or to incite, encourage or assist in subversive or treasonable acts.” — Arjay L. Balinbin
