Senator Robin Padilla scored the lack of due process by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in imposing a 30-day suspension on Sonshine Media Network Inc. (SMNI).
Padilla, who chairs the Senate committee on public information and mass media, plans to formally file a resolution to the effect when the Senate resumes work in January.
The legislator said SMNI has been “instrumental” in assisting the government in its anti-terrorism campaign through its programs seeking to educate the public against “communist propaganda and recruitment strategies.”
“The NTC, in its show cause and suspension order, failed to indicate the need to suspend the operations of the SMNI.”
“The NTC, in its show cause and suspension order, failed to indicate the need to suspend the operations of the SMNI, much more express how this is necessary to avoid serious and irreparable damage or inconvenience to the public or to private interests,” the lawmaker said in the resolution he is to formally file.
“In the absence of proof of serious and irreparable damage or inconvenience to the public or private interests that may be caused by SMNI’s continued operations, the general rule shall apply wherein the NTC shall have the power, upon proper notice and hearing, to issue a suspension order pursuant to the Public Services Act,” the senator added.
He noted that while the NTC has the power to suspend or revoke any certificate issued when the holder violated any of its regulation or any provision of Republic Act 11659, a proviso in RA 11659 states that the NTC may suspend for up to 30 days “to avoid serious and irreparable damage or inconvenience to the public or to private interests”.
Also, Padilla said the Supreme Court had ruled in 2008 that administrative proceedings are “not exempt from basic and fundamental procedural principles, such as the right to due process in investigations and hearings”.
“The baseless issuance of a 30-day suspension order is a transgression of SMNI’s right to due process.”
“The baseless issuance of a 30-day suspension order is a transgression of SMNI’s right to due process, which will result in serious and irreparable damage to it and its employees no less,” he concluded.
