House votes to revoke SMNI's franchise to operate

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading the measure revoking the franchise of Swara Sug Media Corp. which operates Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), the broadcast network of Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church led by Pastor Quibiloy,

House Bill 9710, which revokes Swara Sug’s franchise due to alleged willful dissemination of false information, transfer of ownership without congressional approval, among others, received 284 yes votes, four no votes and four abstentions.

The measure was filed by 1-Rider party-list Rodge Gutierrez after SMNI aired an episode wherein anchor Eric Celiz accused Speaker Martin Romualdez of splurging over P1 billion in foreign trips, a comment that Celiz later apologized for and said was inaccurate.

Gutierrez, however, said in his bill that SMNI’s broadcast of falsehoods already became a bad habit and subsequently, resulted in blatant violation of Swara Sug’s franchise granted by Congress in 2019.

“SMNI has engaged in red-tagging and fake news peddling, labeling members of the House, the former Vice President of the Philippines [Leni Robredo], and private persons as members of the New People's Army," Gutierrez said.

"The [franchise] grantee corporation also attempted to create discord between the Upper and the Lower House by insinuating that unnamed and unverified Senate sources have claimed that Congress had spent P1.8 billion in travel expenses in 2023 without any basis or proof,” he added.

“In fact, this baseless allegation was subsequently disproved by no less than the head of the Finance Department of the House of Representatives. Clearly, all these acts of SMNl run contrary to its mandate provided under Section 4 of the law that granted its franchise," Gutierrez said.

With the approval, the House ordered the transmittal of the bill to the Senate.  —NB, GMA Integrated News