THE Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed two petitions assailing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allowing two media corporations to engage in business in the Philippines, despite being controlled by foreigners.
In an en banc ruling released on Wednesday, the SC denied the consolidated petitions filed by Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon of Kabataan and lawyer Jonas Julius Caesar Azura.
The SC said it “ would not want to preempt the prerogative to withdraw or uphold the state’s imprimatur on a corporate existence by giving due course to the petitions.”
The petitioners alleged that the SEC violated the constitutionally prescribed foreign-ownership restrictions on nationalized industries when it effectively allowed AXN and Fox televisions to engage as mass- media and advertising entities despite being 99.99-percent controlled by foreigners.
In his privilege speech delivered on January 27 at the House of Representatives, Ridon accused AXN and Fox of “encroaching upon protected industries, including the mass media and advertising.”
He said, based on the last documents submitted to the SEC, these corporations are 99.99-percent foreign-owned.
Azura also filed a separate petition questioning the same. This prompted the SC to consolidate the two petitions.
In dismissing the petitions, the SC said in filing the petitions, Ridon and Azura made collateral attack on the corporate existence of AXN and Fox in the guise of an action questioning the SEC’s issuance of its certificates of registration.
“There being an impropriety in the remedy resorted to by the petitioners and in the absence of the indispensable minimums for judicial review, the Court cannot give due course to these petitions,” the SC said.