With only a couple of weeks before ABS-CBN(s legislative franchise expires, there seems to be a mad scramble.
I am not too sure whether it is to hammer the final nail in its coffin or to beat the dead horse.
Either way, there is a mob calling for its closure that seems louder and more violent than the voices of reason.
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In the madness, people are bound to lose sight of facts and that seems to be the very idea driving the online cacophony.
One fact is that ABS-CBN claims it does not have any outstanding tax liability.
I’ve been seeing this accusation against ABS-CBN all over Facebook and it doesn’t make a bit of sense.
If it were true, I suppose we would have seen BIR file a case of tax evasion against ABS-CBN, but here doesn’t seem to be a case.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said that he wants ABS-CBN shutdown, but I doubt he has said it is because of tax evasion.
So where is this tax evasion accusation coming from?
Any how, I guess we will never know or ever get to find out how this ever came about.
Apart from this, another strange thing I noticed was Mocha Uson Blog and MindaVote calling Senator Pimentel a traitor for asking the House of Representatives to do its job and act on bills calling for ABS-CBN’s renewal.
That’s the sort of language and logic that betrays what kind of intellect is driving the discussion.
In the words of a political party stalwart, “Bobo!”
ABS-CBN has a right to due process which the House of Representatives is denying through its failure to act on the 11 bills filed for the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise.
If Pimentel is a traitor for calling out the House of Representatives on its inaction, then perhaps House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano can be regarded our country’s highest patriot for not doing his job.
Writer.
Waiting on the whole Quo Warranto petition, from what others have said, seems like it’s not just tax evasion because people really spread something as simple as not paying your bills is much more understood, but more in ABS-CBN violating their franchise agreement with the Government for years by acting beyond the limits and bounds of the contract. Gotta be a lengthy read-up later if they show the entire thing. And Duterte supporters need to wait and see instead of screech first, think second when they find something inconvenient.
Likewise, waiting to see how ABS-CBN will answer the allegations and how the SC will decide.
If we go by how the SC has decided pet cases of the Administration, I don’t have high hopes for ABS-CBN.
The whole circus of the OSG filing a Quo Warranto wouldn’t have happened if good old Speaker Cayetano and Congressman What-is-his-face chairman of the legislative franchise committee heard the 11 bills filed for ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal.
Word is Cayetano is waiting for ABS-CBN to sweeten the pot… wink wink!
Then again, the OSC Quo Warranto is perhaps some sort of mercy from the Administration, granting ABS-CBN due process where it was denied in the House of Representatives.
Well, now we got statements from the Senate that ABS-CBN can continue to operate till March 2022 by just getting a permit from the National Telecommunications Commission so they can continue to broadcast and operate, if they do not get an extension on their franchise by that time they’ll have to wait for a more friendly Congress. So yeah, they got their due process, but ABS-CBN will probably suffer financially even if they get a permit to operate, as long as they can’t get their franchise extension, along with several of their personalities getting real angry with impotence. Waiting on the SolGen’s reply because people who’ve read it are saying the charges are serious, but prefer not to believe too much on the hype.
If there is a violation in the franchise agreement; ABS CBN must be closed…
ABS CBN is the propaganda machine of the Aquino Cojuangco political axis…they always feature the “heroism/martyrdoom” of Ninoy Aquino, Jr., and the “sainthood of Cory Aquino”…They were the promoter of the 1986 EDSA Fake News that became Fake History. ..ABS CBN indoctrinated the Filipino youth of the Fake History of the EDSA “revolution”…
The Lopez family is one of the oligarch families that control the wealth of our country. They controlled the information, through this broadcasting network, to promote; biased political opinions ; demonization of political opponents; misinformation and disinformations; radicalization of the young; stupid and dumb shows; the psuedo CPP/NPA communist(Mafia) agendas; etc…
We must destroy all these oligarch families that control our country…and free our people from their political machinations of oligarchs’ self serving purposes . CLOSE ABS CBN . DO NOT RENEW THEIR FRANCHISE !
It might related to what Rappler been rapped for, having foreign ownership while being a media company (while on paper claiming not to be, to get around 100% Filipino only rule). There’s also that angle by Rigoberto Tiglao about ABS-CBN being proxy owned by Indonesian Anthony Salim through Manny V. Pangilinan. Nevertheless, let’s see if this can be handled without shutting the station down, so that there’s a chance for its content to be changed.
I can smell the desperation from here. It’s time to end this cancerous media company.
Been busy for a couple of days, but it’s here https://bit.ly/2uMOH7G, The Quo Warranto petition with 63 pages, lots of major stuff, but what others who have a background in law have been saying, ABS-CBN has been using their free broadcast channel to do pay-per-view offerings and there’s also ownership issues.
Haven’t had free time to read it all, but pretty amazed that people who are blindly defending ABS-CBN are citing “Free Speech”, no, if it was Free Speech issue, then they wouldn’t be lawyering up to defend their franchise agreement and plenty of other ignorant defense statements.
Thanks for the link to the document. I am no lawyer but being around so many of them on any given day, I can probably convince one to walk me through this.
I saw good old RJ Nieto dissing Christian Esguerra over his response to the Quo Warranto. I understand why Nieto would hit Esguerra for not revealing the details of ABS-CBN’s response to Calida’s allegations, but I think that may be the last time he does and really, it was a low hanging fruit.
Thing is, the pay-per-view issue should have been caught by the NTC, right?
As for free speech, I think the extra ordinary legal route taken by the administration as well as President Duterte’s statements against ABS-CBN have created some basis for the yellows to cry out persecution.
I don’t think people can freely speak if they know that if they pique people in power, they can get sued or have the BIR look through their records. So it is in this vein that “freedom of speech” looks like it is being threatened.
Same, also waiting on ABS-CBN’s supposedly lengthy counter-petition.