House panel summons ABS-CBN’s Gabby Lopez to shed light over citizenship issue

By JOHN CARLO M. CAHINHINAN

The House committee on legislative franchises has invited ABS-CBN chairman emeritus Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III to shed light over allegations hounding his citizenship and other alleged violations of the network giant.

Palawan Rep. Franz “Chicoy” Alvarez, chair of the House committee on legislative franchises, ordered the secretariat to summon Lopez in the panel’s next scheduled hearing to give him chance to answer allegations that he is supposedly an American citizen and prohibited from owning a media company under the 1987 Consitution.

Lopez was not present during Monday’s joint congressional inquiry that seeks not only discuss whether or not ABS-CBN should be given a fresh 25-year franchise but also to conduct inquiry over the alleged violations of the media conglomerate under its previous legislative franchise through Republic Act No. 7966

Deputy Speaker and 1-SAGIP Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta last week said Congress should not be keen on giving the Lopez-owned firm a new legislative franchise, since Lopez was allegedly an American citizen and a US passport holder when he took over the chairmanship of the network in 1996 from his father, Eugenio Jr.

Marcoleta also accused the network of playing partisan politics and political kingmaker during the previous presidential elections—the same allegations being thrown to them by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano who is President Rodrigo Duterte during the 2016 presidential polls.

The President on many occasions had cursed Lopez and the embattled network, and even threatened to oppose its franchise renewal prior to the expiration of RA 7966 last May 4.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)