At the latest hearing for the ABS-CBN Franchise, a lawmaker seemed to be spouting the exact same lines as trolls and bashers of the embattled network.
He said that the network should have renewed its franchise back in 2014 during the 16th Congress, unlike now when he thinks that they’re under pressure to take action at this time of the pandemic.
“Ang huling tanong ko po Mr. Chairman, at siguro sa history, I don’t know when would this be taken up, nung 2010, 2014 ho, nag submit na kayo ng renewal ano pong nangyari kase ho ngayon under COVID, under pressure, under 10 months pinipili nating aprubahan itong prangkisa.”
He believed that back then there would be “some congruence in terms of principles” between the network and the Aquino administration.
“You can imagine noon pong 1986-87 binalik ng pangulong Aquino sa inyo ang prangkisa in 2014, 2016 is the son of former President Cory Aquino, I would think at that point there was some congruence, in terms of principles of perception of political camp if you may.
“Ano po yung nangyari nung 2014 at hinde na tuloy yung prangkisa?”
This questioning was just one of Defensor’s suspected biased counter-arguments against ABS-CBN.
But during the hearing, Defensor claimed that PDRs (Philippine Depositary Receipts) are a kind of ‘excuse’ for giving foreigners the opportunity to circumvent the strict constitutional restriction on full Philippine ownership of media companies.
“Ang PDRs ay pagtatago sa tunay na pagmamay-ari ng dayuhan,” he claimed in spite of the Securities and Exchange Commission saying this was not so.
He was then blasted on social media after showing his true bias against the network.
https://twitter.com/lofamianism/status/1271021656748683264?s=20
Carlo Katigbak, ABS-CBN’s president and CEO, calmly answered that the company applied for a franchise during the 16th Congress, but only one hearing on ABS-CBN’s application was set.
“I can only answer factually, Mr. Chair that there were no hearings scheduled for the franchise. I think it was the 16th Congress, there was one hearing Mr. Chair.
“I don’t think there’s anything else I can add Mr. Chair except that we did file for the renewal of our franchise application with Congress and unfortunately for us, it was not acted on the 16th and 17th Congress.”
Defensor also asked why the network’s talents and employees had not been more vocal years back when the previous franchise bills had been filed in Congress, which was also one of the frequent rebuttals of trolls and social media bashers.
Katigbak said that the closure of the company’s broadcasting activities has forced its actors and workers to finally speak up.
“Sa ngayon nagsasalita po yung mga artista at empleyado kasi tinanggal na po kami sa ere. I think more than any other reason, that’s the reason why people started speaking out.”
