Lawmakers known to be the prime oppositors to the ABS-CBN franchise are not yet done with the network weeks after they denied the broadcast giant’s franchise.
A tweet by ANC Alerts via Kapamilya reporter RG Cruz reported that Sagip Partylist Congressman Rodante Marcoleta filed a resolution seeking to investigate the authenticity of ABS-CBN’s land title which according to him is probably fake.
JUST IN: Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta files House Resolution seeking a congressional inquiry into the authenticity of ABS-CBN's land title for its property on Mother Ignacia Avenue, Quezon City. | via @R_G_Cruz888 pic.twitter.com/A2uR09B19Q
— ABS-CBN News Channel (@ANCALERTS) July 28, 2020
In his resolution, Marcoleta asked the House of Representatives to form an inquiry in aid of legislation to look into the land title of ABS-CBN compound on Mother Ignacia, Quezon City.
During the ABS-CBN franchise hearing, it was Marcoleta who also raised the issue on ABS-CBN’s land title saying the title ABS-CBN provided looks like fake and was taken from “Recto”. Recto Avenue in Manila is known for its underground business on making fake IDs and certificates.
Meanwhile, aside from the network’s land title, Marcoleta together with other ABS-CBN oppositors Jesus Crispin Remulla, Mike Defensor, Paolo Duterte, Eric Yap, Claudine Bautista, and Pidi Barzaga also filed a resolution to investigate Lopez group’s written off loans with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
Representatives Bautista, Duterte, Yap, Defensor, Remulla, Marcoleta and Barzaga file a House Resolution seeking a congressional probe on loans to Lopez Family Businesses that were allegedly written off by the DBP. | via @R_G_Cruz888 https://t.co/0DZDz8CZWO
— ABS-CBN News Channel (@ANCALERTS) July 28, 2020
The written-off loan by the Lopez group was also mentioned during the ABS-CBN franchise hearing but it was not taken up.
In 2006, DBP had allegedly written-off some 1.6B loans by the Lopez Group of Companies.
P710 million of those are from Maynilad Water Services Inc. (which soured in 2003); P591 million from Bayan Telecommunications (soured in 2001), P207 million from Central CATV Inc. (soured in 2001), and P157 million from Benpres Holdings Inc.—all Lopez-owned or -controlled companies at that time.
The write-off of the loans apparently was made possible through the Special Purpose Asset Vehicle Law of 2002, which was made into law to help the Philippine banking system dispose of accumulated bad loans then estimated at P520 billion—equivalent to an alarming 12 percent of the size of the local economy.
And for DBP the move was meant to free them of bad loans that were weighing down its balance sheet.
