I WAS all set to write about “I Am Iloilo City’s” Mayor Geronimo getting a stiff dose of “gugma ko hope mo” from Rep. Julienne a.k.a. Jam-jam Baronda resulting some say into that special mention by President Duterte in his live national telecast a few days ago.
I’m guessing “mango jam” is no longer Mayor Geronimo’s favorite spread on his toasted bread.
And then le affair ABS-CBN happened and Moi suddenly was beset with phone calls, emails and private messages – in fact I was overwhelmed – all asking me about my opinion and if or when should I write about it, bearing in mind that I am still an active journalist. I was. Now I’m just a columnist.
So due to insistent public demand (pun intended) and without further ado, here’s my piece on le affair ABS-CBN.
So if you think the title is a dead giveaway on what I think about the whole teleserye, perhaps. But let’s not be too hasty.
After ABS-CBN’s legislative franchise expired on May 4, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued the following day a cease and desist order for ABS-CBN to immediately stop its broadcast operations. This is because:
“The Constitution requires a prior franchise from Congress before a broadcasting entity can operate in this country. In the absence of a renewal, the franchise expires by operation of law. The franchise ceases to exist and the entity can no longer continue its operations as a public utility.”
Further on that, In an Order dated May 5, the NTC directed ABS-CBN to stop operating its television and radio broadcasting stations nationwide “absent a valid Congressional Franchise required by law.”
NTC cited Republic Act No. 3846 or the Radio Control Law which states that “no person, firm, company, association, or corporation shall construct, install, establish, or operate a radio transmitting station, or radio receiving station used for commercial purposes, or a radio broadcasting station, without having first obtained a franchise therefore from the Congress of the Philippines.”
Thus, with the expiration of the Republic Act. No 7966, which granted ABS-CBN a 25-year franchise to operate its TV and radio broadcasting stations, NTC said that ABS-CBN “no longer has a valid and subsisting congressional franchise as required by Act No. 3846.”
Simply put, the franchise of ABS-CBN expired and was not renewed and as the law says, without a franchise they cannot operate. It’s the same logic that you cannot drive with an expired driver’s license. Take note: there was neither mention nor reference to putting a gag on ABS-CBN because of the politics they espouse.
It’s all about an expired franchise that was not renewed, not about an assault to press freedom. This morning on her program “Headstart” on the cable channel ABS-CBN News Channel, Karen Davila was her usual condescending self and you’re reading this article, aren’t you? So press freedom and democracy is very much alive and kicking.
You have to be some special kind of stupid to keep on screaming that this is an assault on press freedom.
Stupid is knowing the truth, seeing the truth, but still believing the lies.
For the record, ABS-CBN has been the purveyor of the most stupid and mind-numbing shows aired on public television for the past decades and are largely responsible for generations of dumb Filipinos hooked on Vice Ganda.
If you noticed those now triggered and rabid on social media about the “assault on press freedom”, “death of democracy”, the plight of the poor 11,000 (from Bureau of Internal Revenue records, actually 4,000) nationwide regular employees of ABS-CBN who suddenly become poor, starving, perhaps homeless when the network went off the air and other nonsense, are those who grew up on the “dumb and dumber” programming of ABS-CBN.
I read somewhere that a certain politician said with the closure of ABS-CBN there will be 2,000 plus more COVID-19 cases because the people will go out since they have nothing to watch now that the network is off the air. Really they’re dumber than I thought. I underestimated the stupidity of it all.
For Albay congressman Joey Salceda to even suggest that more people will be infected with COVID-19 just because they can no longer watch ABS-CBN means that these people are not even aware that there are other channels to watch at a simple flick of the TV remote control.
The noisiest people now in social media are the usual trendy social-climbing so-called millennials. Does Gabby Lopez keep pictures of them in his wallet, and does he even care or know them?
These people are protecting a rent-seeking oligarch just because they’re tickled pink watching Coco Martin pretending to be a policeman.
On a personal note, I really don’t care if ABS-CBN is on or off the airwaves. I don’t watch it anyway./PN
