6th Sunday of Easter

In the American musical film, The Lion King, King Mufasa told his son Simba what are the responsibilities of a king being the sole heir to his throne. But Mufasa’s younger brother, Scar, wanted the throne for himself and planned to eliminate Mufasa and Simba. He succeeded by setting a trap for them. He lured Simba to go into a narrow place where the hyenas drove a herd of wildebeest into a stampede which almost killed the young lion. Then he informed Mufasa of Simba’s plight knowing that the king would rush to save his only son. In trying to save his son, Mufasa never thought that Scar would enjoy seeing him dead. Scar then instilled in the mind of Simba that it was the young lion’s fault that his father died. He told him to leave the kingdom. Simba grew up outside the kingdom with his new friends Timon and Pumbaa until one day he met his childhood friend Nala. Nala urged Simba to return to the kingdom. But he was reminded of his fault which resulted to his father’s death, so he refused to go back to the kingdom. It was then at that moment when Rafiki showed up. Rafiki told Simba that his father’s spirit lives on in him. Rafiki somewhat re-echoed to Simba his father’s voice to embrace his true identity and take his rightful place as king.

The role of Rafiki in the story is that of an advocate. Advocate simply means “to add a voice”. To advocate means to add a voice of support to a person or to his/her cause. Thus, Rafiki in the story added a voice of support to Simba by representing Mufasa who willed Simba to succeed him as a king.

The word advocate is also used in the Bible as Jesus mentioned that he would ask the Father to send his disciples another advocate (John 14: 15-21). But before he talked about the advocate, he said to his disciples to keep his commandments and they should do this for the love of Jesus.

Just like in the story of The Lion King wherein Mufasa expressed his will to Simba to succeed him as a king someday, Jesus expressed his will to his disciples to keep his commandments. In the absence of Mufasa, someone should add a voice of support for the fulfillment of his will. In the physical absence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the advocate shall add a voice of support for the fulfillment of his will –that out of love, his disciples will keep his commandments. Hence, the advocate does not just comfort, counsel or help the disciples but voices out the will of Jesus for them. Despite the perceived physical absence of Jesus, the disciples should keep his commandments as the advocate, the Holy Spirit is present to see it fulfilled.  

For us Catholics, whenever we feel God or Jesus is absent in our life, when all our prayers remained unanswered, we better invite the Holy Spirit to come into our life and guide us to fulfill whatever God or Jesus wills for us. Amen.

On ABS-CBN's Shut Down (My First Legal Reflection)

DOING INDIRECTLY WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE DIRECTLY

ABS-CBN, a broadcast network, must obtain a franchise to operate. They must obtain it from Congress. A franchise bill has to be approved by the House of Representatives then it has to be forwarded to the Senate. Once a franchise bill is approved by both Houses, the last one to approve it is the president.

But the House of Representatives was unable to act on ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal. Instead the House of Representatives and the Senate authorized the NTC to give provisional authority to ABS-CBN. What does NTC have to do with ABS-CBN’s issue on franchise? Well, NTC issues a Certificate of Public Convenience to any broadcast network after a franchise is secured by the network from Congress. But because there is no franchise yet, NTC cannot provide ABS-CBN the said certificate. So, a provisional authority to operate is deemed to be the solution. This is also the legal view of the DOJ Secretary that Congress may direct NTC to issue a provisional franchise to ABS-CBN while its application for renewal is pending in the House of Representatives. Despite this advice of the DOJ, NTC did not issue a provisional authority to operate rather it issued a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN on May 5, a day after the expiration of its legislative franchise.

Is there any grave abuse of discretion on the part of NTC for not granting ABS-CBN a provisional permit? NTC has to execute the law. If there is no franchise, there is no operation can be made by the network. Section 16 of the Public Telecommunication Policy Act of the Philippines states that, “no person shall commence or conduct the business of being a public telecommunications entity without first obtaining a franchise.” NTC is just doing what they are ought to do.

Can Congress hold NTC in contempt for not issuing ABS-CBN the provisional authority to continue operations? This is a good question but this is not the fact in issue here. If only Congress has granted the franchise, it can be shown then that NTC has nothing to do with the closure of ABS-CBN. If it is in the power of Congress to grant the franchise, why can’t they give it to ABS-CBN and revoke it thereafter if ever ABS-CBN shall be found violating the terms and conditions of their franchise? It’s not hard to tell that someone is trying to do indirectly what could have been done directly, i.e., to get rid of the network temporarily or even permanently.