Philippines forces top broadcaster ABS-CBN off-air
THE Philippines’ largest broadcaster ABS-CBN Corp on Tuesday evening shut down its radio and television operations nationwide. This, in compliance with an order from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which had turned its back on a commitment it made to Congress that it would give a prov isiona l licence to t he broadcast giant.
The NTC issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) to the network earlier on Tuesday, a day after the network’s 25-year franchise had expired.
The network went off the air at 7:52pm (1152 GMT), at the close of its flagship news programme, TV Patrol.
It was the first time ABS-CBN was forced by the government to shut down since it was padlocked in September 1972 when dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.
In March, NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba assured members of the House of Representatives that the agency would heed the advice of the Department of Justice to allow ABSCBN to operate while its franchise renewal was pending in Congress.
But on Sunday, Solicitor General Jose Calida, who earlier filed a quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN to have the network’s franchise revoked, warned the NTC against granting a provisional authority to the broadcaster.
Cordoba and deputy commissioners Edgardo V Cabarios and Delilah Deles signed the NTC order on ABS-CBN to “stop operating its various TV and radio broadcasting stations nationwide”.
Cabarios denied that the NTC was pressured by Calida.
He said the issue was “the validity of the franchise” and that its legal team had “deemed it proper to issue a CDO” despite Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra’s position that broadcast entities could continue operating while their franchise renewals were pending in Congress.
He cited Republic Act No 3846, or the Radio Control Law that was last amended in the 1950s, which said: “No person, firm, company, association or corporation shall construct, install, establish, or operate a radio station within the Philippine Islands without having first obtained a franchise therefore from the Philippine Legislature.”
Despite its diversification into highspeed broadband, theme parks as well as international and digital productions, ABS-CBN still relies on advertising from its TV business for about half of its revenues, which hit 40 billion pesos ($790 million) in 2018.
Before signing off, network executives thanked the public and its 11,000 employees.
“At the start of the enhanced community quarantine, many of you continued to go to work, to maintain our broadcast,” ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Katigbak told company employees.
He said the network “has done everything and has not violated any laws”, in having its franchise renewed and Congress had acknowledged its importance.
“If we have been important to you, keep us in your thoughts, in honour of all our employees,” Katigbak said.
Company chair Mark Lopez said it was painful to go off the air, but the company was not losing hope.
“Help us continue to pray, so that ABS-CBN can go back on air, and continue to serve,” he said.
Former vice-president and longtime TV Patrol anchor Noli de Castro was emotional.
“We will not be silenced despite this attack on our democracy and press freedom. In the face of this challenge facing our company and livelihood, we will not turn our backs on you. We, you, are ABS-CBN,” De Castro said in Filipino.
The ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) and the network’s social media accounts remain active.
The moves by the NTC and Calida came following President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to shut the network down over a feud with its owners that supposedly began when the TV network failed to air his advertisements during the 2016 election campaign.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin
Drilon condemned the order, saying the NTC gravely abused its discretion.
ABS-CBN could challenge the NTC order at the Supreme Court, which could issue a temporary restraining order, he said.
“The Supreme Court itself has said provisional authority can be authorised to be issued where the application for the renewal of the franchise is pending,” said Drilon, a former justice secretary.
At the House of Representatives, Palawan Representative Franz Alvarez, the head of the committee on franchises, said there was no basis for the NTC to shut ABS-CBN.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the shutdown came just two days after World Press Freedom Day.
“All this stems from President Rodrigo Duterte’s vendetta against the network, whose franchise renewal he pledged to block. It sends a clear
TVPatrol.
message: ‘What Duterte wants, Duterte gets.’
“And it is clear, with this brazen move to shut down ABS-CBN, that he intends to silence the critical media and intimidate everyone else into submission,” NUJP chair Nonoy Espina said in a statement.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte had accepted an apology from the network regarding the non-airing of his election campaign propaganda and had “left its fate to both houses of Congress”.
Cabarios said in an interview with Philippine Daily Inquirer that the agency’s move to shut down a television network due to a lack of a franchise was unprecedented.
“As far as I can recall, this is the first time,” said Cabarios, who has spent almost four decades at the NTC. “Usually, we issue a CDO for violating the NTC’s rules.”