Former DICT Sec Rodolfo Salalima expresses legal view that NTC's cease and desist order vs ABS-CBN is void ab initio because it violated ABS-CBN's right to due process and NTC's own rules of procedure. Being void ab initio, he says CDO has no force of law. [A THREAD] 1/

Salalima says ABS-CBN's constitutional right to due process was violated because ABS-CBN was never notified nor heard about alleged violation. Says that if complaint was filed before May 5, it is premature. If filed on May 5, CDO was hastily issued on same day. 2/

Salalima also asks: Was a copy of the petition, if any, served on ABS-CBN and was a show cause order issued before CDO? Answer is NO. This, he says, is a violation of procedural due process. NTC rules also require show cause order be issued before CDO. 3/

Salalima: Without procedural due process, all decisions of courts, quasi-judicial bodies, though arguably consistent with substantive statutory laws, are void ab initio (Ang Tibay vs CIR [1940]). They are of no force and effect in law. This is true of the NTC’s CDO in question 4/

Salalima says ABS-CBN could continue operating even after lapse of franchise as a matter of legal right and in the interest of justice and due process. Although franchise is a privilege, once it's granted and grantee infuses investments, it becomes vested consti property right 5/

Under Constitution, no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied equal protection of the law. Cites case of Shauf v. CA which says right to earn a living is part of one’s right to life itself. 6/

Salalima says ABS-CBN’s consti right to operate in interim gains more importance bec its ops are clothed with public interest (engaged in public service) and right is intertwined with expanded digital freedom of expression under Consti, 1948 Universal Dec of Human Rights. 7/

Salalima says that more than equity, as Justice Sec Menardo Guevarra reasoned out to justify grant of provisional authority to ABS-CBN, ABS-CBN’s operations in the interim is a matter of constitutional right, justice and due process. 8/

Salalima also differentiates ABS-CBN's case from that of Associated Communications and Wireless Services cited by SolGen: The particularities in and the uniqueness/novelty of ABS-CBN’s factual situation are not identical to those in the case of Associated Communications. 9/

Salalima: Blind idolatry to judicial precedents, as when the salient facts obtaining in two cases are not identical, must not be countenanced.

SolGen had cited ACWS case to justify NTC's immediate issuance of CDO, based on SolGen's letter to NTC. 10/ https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/06/20/calida-pressed-ntc-to-issue-cease-and-desist-order-vs-abs-cbn-document-shows

Salalima asks: Why are we a Nation of sadists and masochists inflicting pain and sufferings against each other and unto ourselves?...When we should heal and move as one, particularly now, against and amidst this terrible pandemic. 11/

Although NTC's CDO is void ab initio, Salalima says NTC is wrong agency to put pressure on. Says ultimate responsibility, fault lie in Congress, particularly leadership of House of Reps, constitutionally vested with exclusive plenary juris and power to hear, grant franchise. 12/

Salalima: For Congressional non-action, public service and freedom of expression were thus sacrificed via void legal technicality - void ab initio CDO of NTC dated May 5. Non-action is the worst form of delay. Because it leaves the aggrieved without clear and speedy recourse. 13/

Salalima: Against strict law and legal technicality, let us think and act, always, not by the letter of the law that killeth but by the spirit that giveth life to the law. 14/

Salalima: Our Constitution is not a strict, passive, cold and indifferent law. It is a living and dynamic organism that must respond and adjust to the needs and in the service of every Filipino, our people, and our one and only Nation. God bless us all! 15/

Salalima was 1st DICT sec under Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. He was former chief legal counsel, senior advisor of 1 of the leading telecommunications firms in PH and has served as ex-pres of PH Chamber of Telecoms Operators and Intl Telecom Union Council working group. /end