Author: Rochelle Pamotongan

Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor claimed that passing the resolution to deny the franchise application of the ABS-CBN network was hard for the House franchise committee, knowing that the welfare of its 11,000 employees will be greatly affected. In an interview with ANC, he claimed, “My heart goes out for everyone who’s been affected by this.” But he further said that Congress having the constitutional duty could not just let the alleged violations pass stating, “the situation is that we have a constitutional duty to decide.” He also stated that the Lopez-owned company already knew that “there may be problems”…

Actors Marvin Agustin and Markki Stroem once more trended as speculations that they have a romantic relationship started up after a photo of them lying in bed together circulated online. The photo shows Markki smiling at the camera while Marvin who seemed sleeping was leaning on the former’s body. Back in 2018, rumors romantically linking the two already surfaced on social media after they where spotted traveling together. The allegations were strengthened with posted photos taken in the same place and testimonies of netizens who supposedly have spotted them together on several occasions. However, both of them denied the assumptions…

Singer-Actress Agot Isidro once again set the online world abuzz after requesting GMA Network’s newscast have a troll fact check. The troll was an edited photo of 24 Oras wherein it highlighted a report regarding Jinkee Pacquiao supposedly buying Agot Isidro to be a maid. She shared this on Twitter and captioned, “Pa fact check naman @24OrasGMA. Mga trolls nga naman. 🙄.” https://twitter.com/agot_isidro/status/1281783040138776578?s=20 There was also an edited photo where Jinkee, together with her daughters, could be seen riding a carabao pulled by a cart. This was a sarcastic reaction to Agot’s claim stating that instead of riding those luxurious…

ABS-CBN will continue to stay off-air after it failed to win the votes of the legislative franchise committee members to grant its application of a franchise renewal. The votes resulted in an overwhelming affirmation after 70 members adopted the rejection while only 11 voted for the rejection’s dismissal. Sadly, one of the members who denied the network’s franchise was the father of the Kapamilya star Enzo Pineda. Enzo is a Star Magic talent of ABS-CBN and he has been with the network for roughly 4 years. This being said, many assumed that since he is a Kapamilya that his father…

The wife of the late rapper Francis Magalona, Pia Magalona, expressed her frustration with House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano after he urged the public to understand the decision to deny ABS-CBN network a fresh 25-year franchise. This contradicts the fact that he previously assured the public that the network will be treated fairly and will be given a chance to a provisional franchise renewal. Pia was disappointed in the result and admitted that her family also had a similar situation with Cayetano. According to Pia, he befriended them to use one of her late husband’s popular songs for his senate…

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Legislative Franchises dealt a major blow as it denied the franchise renewal of the largest broadcasting network in the Philippines. Out of the 85 committee members, the decision resulted in a majority of 70 affirmative votes in favor of passing the resolution to deny a new 25-year franchise application of ABS-CBN. With the decision, the bills to grant the media giant its franchise will no longer advance to the plenary level. While Malacañang insisted that it was neutral on the issue, they cannot deny the fact that President Rodrigo Duterte previously threatened ABS-CBN with…

On July 10, one of the Philippines’ largest broadcasting companies effectively shut down after it failed to win the votes of the legislative franchise committee members. Out of the 85 members of the committee and ex-officio members present, only 11 congressmen voted against the rejection of a fresh 25-year license of media giant ABS-CBN. And one of the members who supported the call to renew the franchise was veteran actress-turned-Batangas 6th district Representative Vilma Santos-Recto. In an interview with ABS-CBN TeleRadyo, Santos admitted that she was surprised by the 70-11 result knowing that many supported the franchise bill during the…

GMA Network, one of the leading broadcasting companies that is known for serving with a heart, celebrates another milestone for reaching seven colorful decades. In celebration of its anniversary, there might be things that you don’t know about the network and in recognition of its success here are some facts about the Kapuso network. 1. The largest TV Network. It has a total of 52 stations that reaches over 80 million television viewers all over the country, making it the largest TV network in the Philippines, in terms of number and reach. 2. First Filipino TV Network with two YouTube…

Kapamilya actress Angel Locsin hit back at known DDS blog site ‘Thinking Pinoy’, a politically vocal blog that supports the Duterte administration, after it reacted to her recent open letter to the government. In her post, she claimed that there are more important issues to be tackled aside from the controversial ABS-CBN franchise renewal, Anti-Terror bill, and Re-naming of the NAIA airport. She listed the other important matters such as the COVID-19 pandemic, education, livelihood, and the like. https://twitter.com/iMthinkingPinoy/status/1278906433904533505?s=20 ‘Thinking Pinoy’ in reply reiterated that the Congress was supposed to be on break but the media giant insisted the hearings…

In a series of tweets, political scion Jake Ejercito denounced the governance of the Duterte administration. Amid the scare of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jake questioned the non-presence of President Rodrigo Duterte because, at a time when the government should have been preparing for the worst, Duterte was downplaying the threat, telling the public there is nothing to worry about the virus. The country lost a lot of ground in its fight against COVID-19 when the government failed to implement measures at the very start. https://twitter.com/unoemilio/status/1238068144981200908?s=20 He even tagged Mocha Uson as ‘garbage’ and other government propagandists as a ‘joke’ after…

During the 10th joint house committee hearing, various accusations concerning the ABS-CBN’s taxes were discussed. Critics claimed tw1he network used its subsidiary Big Dipper Digital Content and Design Inc. and Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation Inc. to avoid paying taxes. To give light to the issue at hand, tax avoidance is very much different from tax evasion. Although it minimizes the payment of taxes, it is not considered illegal but rather employs legal means as a tax-saving measure like using tax credits and incentives. Tax evasion, on the other hand, uses fraudulent means in order not to pay the tax supposed to…

During a Palace press briefing on July 1, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque confidently announced that the Congress would take into consideration the welfare of ABS-CBN Network’s 11,000 workers in determining its grant of franchise renewal. Although he reiterated that the media giant should first secure its license to operate. Roque said, “Tingnan natin kung ano ang maging desisyon ng Kongreso, pero hindi po natin sila pupuwedeng panghimasukan bagama’t sigurado po ako na iko-consider din ng mga congressmen at ng mga senador ang kapakanan ng mga mawawalan ng trabaho.” After the Kapamilya network stopped its broadcast operations following the cease and…

On Instagram, Kapamilya actor Tony Labrusca argued with a certain Richard Bolisay who said that the actor only serves the LGBTQIA+ audience with his desirable looks Bolisay said, “Ang concern ko lang naman..bakit natin ino-overstate yung desirability ni Tony Labrusca sa gay audience eh looks lang naman ang siniserve niya at hindi lang naman looks ang hinahanap natin.” This annoyed the actor who denied this and even stated that the members of the LGBT community are actually his most hateful bashers. “I don’t really understand where u got the notion that ‘the gays’ are overstating my ‘desirability’ cuz from my…

Time sure flies for the 25-year-old actress Maine Mendoza as she celebrates her 5th year anniversary in the entertainment industry this coming month of July. Maine once admitted that being a celebrity has always been just a secret dream of hers, and that she never imagined she would get the chance to make the dream into a reality. Unlike other celebrities who go through training and workshops before becoming a star, Maine joined showbiz in the most unconventional way after going viral online. However, she had her fair share of setbacks. Back in 2015 she auditioned for the reality TV…

Antoinette “Direk Tonet” Jadaone, the filmmaker behind famous box office hit movies, rebuked Anak Kalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor who said ABS-CBN should drop its news and public affairs programs and broadcast only non-political shows while congressional deliberations on its franchise renewal are still ongoing. On Twitter, Direk Tonet expressed her dismay stating that Defensor’s kind of argument is something that must be evaluated first before publicizing, to know how dumb the idea was. She captioned, “Jusqqqqqqqqqqqq! Eto ‘yung tipong sana nai-send muna niya sa group chat ng barkada nila para makita niya gaano ka-bobo ‘yung ideya bago lumabas sa…

Filipinos were caught by surprise on June 25 after a bill to rename the NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) was filed at the House of Representatives. The move was made by three  congressmen, Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco, ACT-CIS Representative Eric Yap, and presidential son and Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte. The three stated that since the NAIA is the center of international gateway it is identified as belonging to the Philippines, thus it should be renamed to ‘Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Pilipinas.’ They said, “With the proposed name, the airport will easily be identified as the international doorway…