Duterte signs radio, TV franchise of Southern Luzon State University
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has signed House Bill No. 10122, authored by Quezon 4th District Rep. Angelina “Helen” Tan and Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga of the 1st District of Quezon, granting a radio and television franchise to Southern Luzon State University (SLSU) for 25 years.
Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11680 – An Act Granting Southern Luzon State University (SLSU) a franchise to construct, install, establish, operate, and maintain for educational and other related purposes radio and television broadcasting stations within its campuses in the Province of Quezon.
The law will allow the SLSU to start and use its radio and television broadcasting stations for educational, cultural, and other related purposes, and in the public interest, where frequencies and channels are still available for radio and television broadcasting, including digital television system, through microwave, satellite or whatever means, as well as the use of any new technology in television and radio systems, with the corresponding technological auxiliaries and facilities, special broadcast and other program and distribution services and relay stations within its campuses in the Province of Quezon.
Tan, a third term Member of Congress, thanked the President for what she described as a franchise law that will allow the SLSU to deliver its services to marginalized students and the general public who are living in areas without internet connectivity.
“The franchise to operate a radio and television stations serves to broaden the SLSU’s coverage and capacities as an effective instrument in information dissemination geared largely to promote community development and facilitate better public service. The law will enable the SLSU to heighten its response to the need to deliver educational services amid the COVID-19 pandemic”, she explained.
Under R.A. 11680, the SLSU is mandated to provide adequate public service time to enable the government to reach the population on important public issues, provide at all times sound and balanced programming, and assist in the function of public information and education.
Tan said that the grant of radio and TV franchise to the SLSU, a premier higher education institution in Quezon Province, is important in light of the UNESCO’s assessment of COVID-19 impact on education, which reveals that so many students enrolled in various higher educational institutions in the Philippines had been affected by the school closures caused by the pandemic.”
