The ABS-CBN Shutdown: Shadier the Second Time Around
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Employees and supporters take to the streets to defend press freedom (Photo by Gil Nartea)
Towards dusk each night, the air around its headquarters in Quezon City reverberates with angry slogans shouted by displaced employees carrying small placards that scream, "Defend Press Freedom!" and "No to ABS-CBN Shutdown!"
Vehicles also honk their horns at high decibel levels starting at around six in the evening, lasting from an hour to an hour-and-a half, with passengers displaying makeshift slogans and urging support for the network's franchise bid, as they circle the street in front of the compound where the network's studios and offices are located.
How long the daily protest rallies will last, nobody really knows. While the mainstays in the daily protest action are the management and workers of the media outfit, supporters have come from different organizations. There's the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the Philippine Center for Photojournalism (PCP), among others. One afternoon, a contingent of students and professors from the Mass Communication Department of the Far Eastern University also came to lend support to the protest rally.
On another afternoon, dozens of jeepney drivers belonging to the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (ACTO) joined the protest rally in solidarity with the displaced workers. They drove shiny stainless steel or gaily decorated jeepneys whose extended length could easily match those of limousines, with a seating capacity of at least 22 people. They had joined the rally, their spokesman said, because four months after the lockdown started, they had yet to be allowed back in the streets by government transport regulators, and their families were going hungry. Some of them were already living with their families inside their jeepneys as they had been evicted from rented homes. They were there, they said, because they were well aware that the network had always supported their cause from way, way back.
More organizations join the rallies to express outrage at the shutdown (Photo by Gil Nartea)
On Saturday, July 18, the rallies gathered momentum as hundreds more, including nuns and cultural workers, joined the protest that started at around three in the afternoon with a noise barrage by a motorcade that started from Ayala Avenue in Makati City and ended up in front of the Quezon City headquarters of the network where speakers from various sectors took turns lambasting its shutdown. The protest action ended at nearly nine p.m.
It's the workers who have been rendered jobless by the shutdown who are understandably outraged over the unexpected fate of the network and worried sick by what's in store for them and their families once they are retrenched by the end of August. That's when network executives said many of the workers would be terminated.
Government Decision
After 13 hearings conducted by House Committees on Legislative Franchises and on Good Government and Accountability, a Technical Working Group (TWG) issued a report adopting the stand of those opposed to ABS-CBN’s franchise application.
The TWG report cited, among others: (1) the “cloud of doubt” on the Filipino citizenship of ABS-CBN chairman emeritus Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III; (2) the use of Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) that allegedly violated the constitutional prohibition against foreign ownership of mass media; (3) questions regarding the validity of the company’s ownership of its assets reacquired after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986; (4) the alleged illegal sale of its TV Plus boxes to broadcast digitally and to use them to offer pay-per-views, supposedly without permission from the NTC; and (5) the alleged illegal use of the franchise of Amcara Broadcasting, and of Big Dipper Design and ABS-CBN Foundation as tax shields.
The TWG report totally ignored the certifications issued by such government agencies as the Department of Justice, Department of Labor and Employment, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Telecommunications Commission, and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, among others, that ABS-CBN had complied with all the laws and regulations on various issues and concerns within their respective jurisdictions.
Defending the decision of the House Committee amid public outcry against it, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the decision was not arrived at “without serious consideration of the overall impact it will have on the nation.”
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque insisted that Malacañang had maintained a “neutral stance” on the decision of the House members, saying the grant of a franchise was the “sole prerogative of Congress.”
Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo, for his part, claimed that the network and opponents of its franchise application had been heard as part of due process. “This is a democratic process and we, in the executive branch, must respect its outcome,” he said.
Congress votes on the ABS-CBN franchise (Photo by Felicer Santos/The STAR)
Contrary Opinions
Official government statements on the issue, however, were disputed by other lawmakers.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said he was “convinced that the only fault of ABS-CBN is it stepped on some powerful political toes, hence the sword has been unleashed on it.”
“The sword of Damocles will continue to hang perilously over other media networks. Both the legislators and the executive can wield the sword at their whim and caprice. This is when democracy starts to weaken,” he said.
Sen. Sonny Angara said the franchise denial “will adversely affect our economy, not just the media or broadcasting industry (but also) the advertising and creative industries. It will not bring any good to press freedom and our democracy.”
Sen. Grace Poe, Senate public services committee chair, said the “pandemic of intolerance has claimed another victim...As a result, thousands of breadwinners will lose their jobs, millions their source of entertainment and information.”
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that with the closure of ABS-CBN, “we have effectively begun to ring the death knell on press freedom in the country. The political persecution of ABS-CBN sends a chilling message to Filipino media practitioners and journalists: Toe the line or get shut down.”
For his part, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez dismissed the allegations in the TWG report, saying relevant government agencies had cleared the network of any wrongdoing during the hearings.
ABS-CBN Reaction
Carlo Katigbak, president and CEO of ABS-CBN, said the network was “deeply hurt” by the denial of its franchise application. “We believe that we have been rendering service that is meaningful and valuable to the Filipino public,” he said. But he also thanked the committee “for allowing us a chance to air our side on all the issues raised against us.”
Carlo Katigbak, president and CEO of ABS-CBN, at congressional hearing.
Katigbak earlier said the company had been losing between P30-35 million a day since it went off the air on May 15.
Ging Reyes, head of ABS-CBN’s Integrated News and Current Affairs, said the network’s shutdown would affect press freedom in the country because “press freedom is not just for us.”
"We want our public to have a choice, in what they will watch, what they will read. Competition is part of the free flow [of information],” she said. “If this is an attempt to curtail press freedom, I believe they won’t succeed. We won’t give up, even though we will be limited in many ways,” Reyes said.
Impact of on the network
The non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise does not mean that all its operations will come to a grinding halt. Only its free TV and radio service will be affected, and its digital operations can continue.
The shutdown covers only the network’s free-to-air radio and television stations in the country. The network had already stopped broadcasting after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a cease-and-desist order on May 5, a day after its franchise lapsed.
Since the shutdown, ABS-CBN’s news and entertainment shows have been limited to subscribers of Skycable, the iWant mobile app, and social media and other internet platforms.
The network's dzMM radio continues to broadcast on Skycable, a subsidiary of ABS-CBN not affected by the lapse of its expired franchise.
According to an analyst, ABS-CBN’s remaining business will not make up for lost advertising earnings and that previously announced layoffs would likely proceed. “From the standpoint of operations and earnings, it’s over for them,” Chris Mangun, research head at stock brokerage firm AAA Equities, told media.
He pointed out that while ABS-CBN retains a vast and valuable library of content, such as TV shows and movies with some of the most recognizable names in entertainment, and has a strong and multiawarded news division, its viability would be adversely affected by its smaller reach. “I don’t think they can survive by broadcasting on just YouTube,” he said.
Impact on press freedom
The government insists that the shutdown of the network is not a press freedom issue. How can it not be? At the very least, it will have a chilling effect on the media industry as a whole. Those critical of government policies and who dared to speak out against graft and corruption, mismanagement and human rights violations in the past will now think twice before doing so, lest they incur the wrath of the powers-that-be. The job of media is to tell the truth, not to sing hosannas to those who wield tremendous power and influence.
The key issue here is press freedom. The non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise is intended to send a strong message to the rest of Philippine media that they should obey what Malacañang says or else get padlocked for good.
The truth of the matter is that ABS-CBN had earned the ire of Duterte for its unflattering reportage on his war on drugs. He had also complained even during the campaign period in 2016 that the network had failed to air a political advertisement he had already paid for four years ago.
This is political vendetta coming from no less than the highest elected official, who should wield power to unite the people and protect freedom of the press and other freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
All things considered, the shutdown of ABS-CBN media by the House of Representatives was the end-result of a conspiracy between the executive and legislative branches of government, and that it has politics written all over it.
The shutdown shows that the legislative branch of government is totally beholden to the dictates of the executive branch.
Not only that, it also shows that the current political dispensation wants to consolidate political power by all means necessary, even to the extent of suppressing all dissent.
This is the second time the media network will be shut down since the 1970s. In 1972, ABS-CBN was first closed down by the Marcos regime upon the formal declaration of martial law.
The second shutdown of the media network with the broadest reach in the Philippines comes at a time when there's a de facto martial law situation with draconian restrictions in place to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. It also takes place under a political environment where the Duterte administration's allies dominate the legislature, which has the sole power to grant or renew legislative franchises.
A recent survey showed that three-fourths of Filipinos wanted the media network to be given a new franchise. By ignoring the strong clamor from the citizenry to allow ABS-CBN to continue its operations despite convincing evidence that it has complied with all the rules, the government has clearly shown its authoritarian bent and contempt for democratic processes.
Displaced Workers
What's unfortunate is that the ABS-CBN shutdown will displace a total of 11,000 employees who would now have to find jobs amid the economic collapse brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the aftermath of the rejection of ABS-CBN’s franchise, two of the network’s veteran journalists—Korina Sanchez-Roxas and Ces Drilon—were among the first to be officially notified that they were being laid off.
Korina Sanchez (Source: TheSTAR)
Roxas, the longtime host of current affairs program “Rated K,” said the ABS-CBN family was “slowly but surely being torn apart…We are called one by one, personally, to be told that we are ‘discontinued.’ Not news to me. I tried to be prepared. But how can you prepare for comatose, or death, really?” she said.
Drilon confirmed that she was also among those who were let go following the nonrenewal of the network’s franchise. “This was one of the toughest days I had to face. Telling fellow Kapamilyas that they would lose their jobs by [the] end of August. I lost mine, too.”
Another longtime employee of the network, Elvira “Tootsy” Angara, wife of Senator Sonny Angara, has worked for the company for 24 years. She told media she feels sad for many of her co-workers, many of whom she said have had their hearts and dreams broken. "As we all go through this devastating week...my heart grieves... my heart is angry,” she added. Her last position in ABS-CBN was as cluster head for advertising and sales of entertainment and lifestyle.
Rank-and-file employees are already beginning to feel the crunch from Congress’ denial of the network’s franchise. “They said everyone is still safe until the end of July,” one employee said, "but I was already asked to report for only two days a week.” The employee added that “since our last cutoff, I’ve only been earning 25 percent of my salary.”
The employee said that “in other divisions, there are plans to force employees to go on rotation or shifting. Instead of working five times a week, some will go to work for only three days. Still, that will be a big reduction in their income.”
Ces Drilon (Source: ABS-CBN News)
Epilogue
As if to rub salt on injury, a lawmaker who was among those who voted to shut down ABS-CBN suggested that the owners should "just sell" the network.
According to House Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund "LRay" Villafuerte: "My suggestion to the Lopez family, if they really love the 11,000 employees (and) they really want to serve the Filipino people, they should just sell the company...I will support the renewal under new management and ownership."
His suggestion echoes that made by Duterte himself last December. The lawmaker's "suggestion" hints at covert close collaboration between Malacañang and Congress on how to bring down the network quite possibly even before the House hearings and the subsequent shutdown.
But an even more insidious aspect of the lawmaker's "suggestion" is that part where he says if the Lopezes really love their 11,000 employees, then they should just sell the network, perhaps to someone or a group with plenty of cash and the requisite political connection to who else. It's a subtle but cunning way to drive a wedge between the network management and the soon-to-be-retrenched employees, and the latter should not fall for this trap.
Employees rally in front of the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City (Photo by Gil Nartea)
Is this a portent of things to come, with the government trying to force the hand of the network and leave it no choice but to hand it over to another group who could very well use it to ensure that the administration's favored candidates will enjoy more happy days beyond 2022?
The latest development on this issue is a video that's been posted on social media where three legislators who led the furious attack on ABS-CBN during the hearings on the franchise are seen discussing the issue.
In that conversation, it appears that they want to get hold of the title to the property where the ABS-CBN is now located. If they can prove that the title is not valid, one said, then all the improvements made therein can be considered government property, and therefore can be seized outright.
What this shows is that the administration is not done yet with the network, and even wants to consider outright seizure of all of its assets.
Is a scenario possible where one day people wake up with TV footage of the military and the police surrounding the entire ABS-CBN compound with armored personnel carriers to enforce seizure proceedings, with hundreds of heavily armed SWAT troopers barreling through the gates and arresting and detaining everyone in sight?
Before 2016, such a scenario didn’t seem possible. Today, it is not only possible; it is perhaps only a matter of time, given all the shadiness of the Duterte administration and its allies the past four years.
Ernesto Hilario
Ernesto M. Hilario studied Political Science at the University of the Philippines and has worked for various government agencies, NGOs and mainstream media since 1978. He writes a regular column for the Manila Standard broadsheet and also works as a freelance writer-editor.
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