Supreme Court asked to stop NTC from granting ABS-CBN provisional permit

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

The lawyer known for moving to impeach a former chief justice on Thursday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the government from granting ABS-CBN a provisional authority to operate pending the renewal of its expiring franchise.

Larry Gadon urged the SC to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from complying with the House franchise committee's order for the issuance of a provisional authority in favor of the network.




In a petition for prohibition, Gadon also asked the court to order House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and franchise committee chair Franz Alvarez to recall their letter to the NTC that contains this instruction, and to cease and desist from "pursuing the matters indicated" in the letter.

Gadon, who ran and lost in the 2019 Senate race, said he was filing the petition as a "concerned Filipino citizen and taxpayer." He admitted he was not directly affected by the issue but claimed his legal standing as a citizen should be recognized as the matter was of "transcendental public importance."

Gadon was recently suspended by the SC for three months over his "arrogant, malicious, and insulting" language against a fellow lawyer and his client in 2009. He was also among those who filed impeachment complaints against then-chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in 2017.