President Rodrigo Duterte, on February 8, accused the Lopez-owned broadcasting company of not paying their taxes.
During his address to the nation, he stated that he would not allow ABS-CBN its franchise back.
“I will not allow the NTC to give them the permit to operate,” said Duterte during his nation’s address.
The Congress even followed the whim of Duterte.
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco released a statement on February 11 that the fate of ABS-CBN’s franchise would be for the next Congress to tackle to.
With Duterte being firm about his accusation and with Congress backing him up, his spokesperson Harry Roque even presented an unverified matrix of the Network’s alleged loans.
According to Roque, the amount that the TV station must pay is P999 million.
However, the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has officially denounced the allegations.
On Wednesday, February 17, a DBP official has certified that ABS-CBN and its subsidiaries have no existing obligations from the state-owned bank.
Rep. Mike Defensor even tried to insinuate the allegation.
“Sinasabi niya walang write off, walang condonation. He said there was no write-off, no condemnation?” Defensor asked DBP Chief Legal Counsel Soraya Adiong.
To which Adiong responded, “There was none, Sir.”
The testimony of Adiong confirmed that the Lopez Holdings and Maynilad (a former subsidiary) that the company gets cleared of the transaction with the Lehman Brothers, who closed the deal with DBP’s non-performing loans.
DBP also assured the legality of its disposal of non-performing loans and assets.
Also, ABS-CBN’s Sky Cable and former unit Maynilad confirmed that they have settled their debts.
Adding to the barrage of evidence is Lopez Holdings president Salvador Tirona who also invalidated the accusation of Roque.
“After that, we negotiated with the SPV together with the other creditors of our different companies and settled our loans with the SPV and the other banks. There was really no repurchase by the Lopezes of what they termed as the assets. It’s a settlement of the loans with the new holder of the loans that came from DBP,” Tirona said.
And with the DBP and Lopez Holdings making sure that the Network did not have any unpaid debt, proving that once again, the Lopezes never broke any alleged violation, will Congress finally proceed with the revival of ABS-CBN’s franchise?
Moreover, since they echoed Duterte’s whims, now that there is no proof regarding unpaid loans nor taxes, will Velasco’s stance to let the next Congress handle ABS-CBN’s franchise? Or will he take the matter to his own hands, making his mark?
