Philippines’ ABS-CBN shutdown: TV network ‘did not attack Duterte’, Lopez matriarch says

The Philippines’ largest broadcaster ABS-CBN was forced off the air on Tuesday, the same day Conchita Lopez Taylor turned 90. “We’re used to it,” she said in a phone interview from her home in California. “We” referred to the large Lopez clan who owns the company, which had been forced to shut once before. Taylor was a 42-year-old mother of seven when ABS-CBN’s facilities were seized in 1972 by the clan’s former political ally, then-President Ferdinand Marcos. Her husband, former ABS-CBN chairman Eugenio Lopez, Jnr, was also arrested and detained. What Marcos did was understandable in hindsight, she said. Relations had broken down between Marcos and his vice-presidential mate, Fernando Lopez, brother of Eugenio, Snr. The Lopez brothers, who co-founded ABS-CBN Corporation and the Manila Chronicle newspaper, were using their two media outlets to expose Marcos’ corruption. “[The outlets] had been attacking Marcos so he really wanted to shut them up,” Taylor said. But the rationale behind the present-day shutdown of ABS-CBN, run by Taylor’s son and nephews, was not as clear, she said. “ABS-CBN was not attacking [President Rodrigo Duterte]. They have been quiet.” They must have something in mind because [the shutdown] is not a popular decision. Conchita Lopez Taylor The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Tuesday issued the network a “cease-and-desist order”, instead of granting it a provisional authority to operate as it had promised the Senate in February, which would have given the legislature time to deliberate on the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise. “What were they thinking? What is their purpose?” Taylor asked. “They must have something in mind because [the shutdown] is not a popular decision.” Taylor described President Rodrigo Duterte as a man who was up to “a lot of mischief … There’s more going on than we are aware of”. Veteran journalist Vergel Santos, who experienced being arrested by Marcos, said “closing the network only fits in Duterte’s despotic designs”. But he added that ABS-CBN should have been bolder in fighting for press freedom. “Instead of closing without a resistance – in fact, closing on the very night after it received the NTC order – it could have shown some fight, as the people on whose behalf it exercised its freedom only deserved,” he said. “Freedom is not something to bargain with; it’s something to fight for.” Duterte had early on lambasted ABS-CBN for taking his payments but not broadcasting his political advertisements before the 2016 presidential election, and also for airing ads that portrayed him in a negative light. However, a Senate investigation found that prepayment of political ads was the norm among TV networks and Duterte’s camp had booked their ads too late, leading to the ad spots being snagged by other candidates. Negative ads were allowed under the Fair Elections Act. As if to rub salt on wound, presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced on Wednesday: “Duterte has said I should thank ABS-CBN for the help it has extended. I was even instructed to enumerate all the things ABS-CBN has done in the light of the #Covid19 pandemic.” Roque added that the President would be “neither angry nor happy [if Congress renews the franchise]. He is completely neutral. Vote as your conscience dictates”. This was an about-turn to Duterte’s pronouncement last December, when he told Congress that he would block any attempt by ABS-CBN to renew its franchise. “I will see to it that you’re out,” he said. The network’s shutdown has been widely condemned by Filipinos as an attack on press freedom. The hashtag #NoToABSCBNShutdown trended on Twitter with nearly a million tweets as the radio and TV network signed off with the Philippine national anthem. Many accused the Duterte government of unfair treatment, because while it had shut down the taxpaying network which rendered 10,000 Filipinos jobless, it was allowing online gaming firms, which employed mainly Chinese workers and were believed to evade taxes, to reopen even during the coronavirus lockdown. ‘No end in sight’ for Philippines lockdown, president says Politicians also cast blame on several parties on Wednesday. In the Lower House, Congressman Lito Atienza lamented “the failure of Congress to do its job”, and said House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano “sat” on the decision to approve the franchise renewal. Foreign secretary Tedoro Locsin, Jnr, a former political commentator on the network, lashed out at the NTC with an expletive, but did not blame solicitor general Jose Calida, who had leaned on the NTC not to grant a provisional authority. Former ABS-CBN anchor Ricky Carandang said on Instagram: “The question here is: who wants the frequencies? The frequencies are what allow the network to broadcast on their channels and they are worth billions. “Whoever makes a play for ABS-CBN’s frequencies is the likely mastermind behind this latest effort,” he said. The NTC, in its cease-and-desist order, gave the network 10 days “to respond as to why the frequencies assigned to it should not be recalled”. Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that approving the franchise would be “no sweat in the Senate”. When asked if the Lower House would do the same, Sotto replied: “I’d rather not second-guess the inclination or thinking of the House of Representatives now. The more pressing question is why they did not approve the Abs franchise in the 16th to the 18th Congress? In the 16th Congress, the President then was [Benigno] Noynoy Aquino.” As poor suffer, Duterte’s ‘macho’ approach to Covid-19 threatens his leadership However, Aquino’s former spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, said the network in 2014 had caused a bill to be filed to renew its franchise but then withdrew it, citing “time constraints” and “opted” to reapply under the next presidency. House ways and means committee chair Joey Salceda warned that the shutdown could lead to 2,600 more coronavirus infections, as people lost their means of information. Salceda, the former chief risk analyst of ING Baring, said that based on their model of how much time people spent watching TV and based on ABS-CBN’s market share, “15.1 million Filipinos will lose their primary source of information” as well as entertainment to keep them under lockdown. The network has a much wider reach than the state TV channel PTV4 and broadcasts in cable to millions of Filipinos living abroad. Senator Edgardo Angara said the shutdown would have a “strong impact” on mental health because ABS-CBN has been “the long-time companion” in many households. The shutdown did not mean, however, that the network had stopped operating altogether. It continues to broadcast on its lone cable channel, ANC which was not covered by the lapsed franchise – and post news on its websites and Facebook pages. The network promised employees that it would continue to pay them, with benefits, “for the next three months”. As millions of TV screens went blank across the country, veteran anchor Ces Oreña-Drilon said on Twitter: “We just signed off. And people in our newsroom couldn’t even hug each other.” Help us understand what you are interested in so that we can improve SCMP and provide a better experience for you. We would like to invite you to take this five-minute survey on how you engage with SCMP and the news.