GR No.

132922, April 21, 1998

Telecommunications & Broadcast Attorneys of the Phils. vs. GMA
- Bleizel D. Teodosio

Facts:

Petitioner Telecommunications and Broadcast Attorneys of the Philippines, Inc. is an

organization of lawyers of radio and television broadcasting companies. The other
petitioner, GMA Network, Inc., operates radio and television broadcasting stations
throughout the Philippines under a franchise granted by Congress. Petitioners
challenged the validity of Section 92 of the Omnibus election Code which states that,
“The Commission shall procure radio and television time to be known as ‘Comelec
Time’ which shall be allocated equally and impartially among the candidates within the
area of coverage of all radio and television stations. For this purpose, the franchise of
all radio broadcasting and television station are hereby amended so as to provide radio
television time, free of charge, during the period of the campaign.”, on the ground that,
among others, it is in excess of the power given to the COMELEC to supervise or
regulate the operation of media of communication or information during the period of
election. Petitioners argued that the power to supervise or regulate given to the
COMELEC under Art. IX-C, Sec 4 of the Constitution does not include the power to
prohibit.

Issue:

Whether or not the COMELEC actually prohibit the operation of media communication
during election period in excess of its power to only supervise the same.

Ruling:

No. What the COMELEC is authorized to supervise or regulate by Art. IXC, Sec. 4 of
the Constitution, among other things, is the use by media of information of their
franchises or permits, while what Congress (not the COMELEC) prohibits is the sale
or donation of print space or air time for political ads. In other words, the object of
supervision or regulation is different from the object of the prohibition. In the second
place, the prohibition in Sec. 11(b) of R.A. No. 6646 is only half of the regulatory
provision in the statute. The other half is the mandate to the COMELEC to procure
print space and air time for allocation to candidates. The term political “ad ban” when
used to describe Sec. 11(b) of R.A. No. 6646, is misleading, for even as Sec. 11(b)
prohibits the sale or donation of print space and air time to political candidates, it
mandates the COMELEC to procure and itself allocate to the candidates space and
time in the media. There is no suppression of political ads but only a regulation of the
time and manner of advertising.