MANILA – ABS-CBN Corporation President and Chief Executive officer Carlo Katigbak apologized to President Rodrigo Duterte for the latter’s claim that the network failed to air P7 million worth of his political ads during the 2016 national elections.
Katigbak made the statement on Monday during a Senate inquiry into the issues regarding the network’s franchise, which Solicitor General Jose Calida wants to revoke.
“We are sorry if we offended the President. That was not the intention of the network, we felt that we were just abiding by the laws and regulations that surround the airing of political ads,” Katigbak said.
President Duterte, in his previous speeches, aired his disgust on the network as it refused to carry his campaign commercials even if these have been already paid for which choosing to air political ads that were besmirching his name.
Katigbak said that Duterte’s camp bought a total of P182 million in commercial spots, split into P117 million for national ads – which were all aired – and P65 million in local ads, which would target audience in a specific province.
“Our policy on all our ads is first-come, first-served. Many of these spots were ordered on May 3, and May 7 was the last day of the campaign period. There had been many previous telecast orders that came in ahead,” Katigbak said.
Katigbak explained that slots for local ads were limited to just two minutes per hour, so the network could not find airtime for Duterte’s content by then. The ABS-CBN have also refunded about P4 million to the President, but got delayed in returning some P2.6 million to his camp.
“We acknowledge our shortcoming in our failure to release that refund in a timely manner,” Katigbak said.
Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go questioned Katigbak as to why ABS-CBN agreed to air an opposition-funded video which questioned if a tough-talking, cursing politician would be a good fit to be Philippine president.
“Hindi mababaw ang rason ng Pangulo sa kanyang grievances against the network. Nasaktan ang Presidente, nababoy ang Presidente. Hindi vindictive ang Pangulo but it is clear that someone went overboard to malign him,” Go said. “For me, this is very troublesome. Media networks are supposed to be neutral”
Katigbak said that the network initially rejected the first version of that ad, but was eventually cleared for airing after changes were made on what the two kids were doing in the video.
“Any politician who comes to our station with an ad that is legal and legitimate must be accommodated,” Katigbak said. “We continue to improve on our shortcomings. We hope we do a better job in the succeeding elections. ABS-CBN does not and will not have its own political agenda.”
President Duterte threatened block the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN. He also suggested to the Lopezes to just sell the network to a new owner as he would make sure that the TV station is out by 2020./PN
