Mourn for ABS-CBN

It was a charade from the start, with an ending lawmakers had already cast in stone before the hearings even opened.

Despite its staunch defense of all issues hurled against it, ABS-CBN was not meant to survive this one. It was thrown inside the lion’s den, set up for slaughter.

Perhaps, the Lopezes already knew what was going to happen, but went along with the hearings anyway if only to show the public they could very well defend the charges hurled against the broadcast giant.

Government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bureau of Immigration, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Justice ably debunked the arguments hurled against the network.

ABS-CBN lawyers also answered competently every issue thrown at the company.

But they were no match for the rubber stamp committee whose members, supposed representatives of the people, acted with shameless servility to their god, ignoring every fact that debunked all the issues they threw against ABS-CBN.

And thus it came to be. Friday, July 10, 2020 is a day we will remember as a dark moment for Philippine journalism, a major blow to press freedom in the country and a day of infamy in our already dystopian nation of more than 107 million.

Hours after the unfortunate decision came out, ABS-CBN higher-ups had to do the inevitable – to draw up a list of people they would have to lay off now that their 25-year franchise would no longer be renewed. More than 11,000 people stand to lose their jobs.

I stand in solidarity with my colleagues from the broadcast giant in this difficult time. I know a few of them personally, but most of them I just see in coverages churning stories, chasing deadlines.

Will a buyer come in?

On the same day, talks about a Chinese-backed buyer started circulating in the media grapevine. The buyer is supposedly recruiting journalists to join the network.

There have been other names of supposedly interested buyers that cropped up in the past, including Duterte pal Dennis Uy and ports tycoon Enrique Razon. Both have denied they intended to buy or buy into ABS-CBN.

But will the Lopezes actually sell?

The answer is up for anyone’s guess for now. They could be forced to sell if they want to immediately save the network’s workforce. The Lopezes may also choose to wait it out and apply for a franchise under the next administration and, this time, with a different set of lawmakers, and come out bigger, better and stronger.

Press Freedom

What is clear for now is that ABS-CBN was a victim of a vicious attacks on press freedom. There is no other way to call it.

ABS-CBN, as I said before, is not perfect – far from it. But a free press is an essential part of a democratic society as it provides the checks and balances.

Yet, this regime, as UST’s journalism professors said, “prefers only praises and propaganda.”

This government, indeed, has inspired so much viciousness since coming into power, and ABS-CBN is it latest victim.

This is all our shared fate. This is a blow not just to ABS-CBN’s freedom, but to every freedom loving Filipino. It is a threat to the fragile democracy that the people won back only 34 years ago.

Martial Law

It’s like déjà vu. In Sept. 23, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos shut down ABS-CBN and forcefully took over the network’s broadcast center and regional stations. Then he came after the others, silencing a total of 292 radio stations, 66 community papers, 11 English weekly magazines, seven TV stations, seven major English dailies, three Filipino dailies and six other dailies published in Chinese, English-Filipino and Spanish.

It was Marcos’s first instruction to the military since declaring Martial Law. He ordered the closure of media organizations that supposedly “engaged in subversive activities against the government… in the broadcast and dissemination of subversive materials and of deliberately slanted and overly exaggerated news stories and commentaries, as well as false, vile, foul and scurrilous statements and utterances…”

The dictator’s justification, however, was nothing more than an attempt to silence critics.

Some might believe such a formula from a dictator’s playbook works as Marcos managed to stay in power for 14 more years.

But this is what the government keeps forgetting – that for every attempt to silence journalists, the fervor and resolve to fight back multiplies a hundred fold.

For now, journalists are in mourning. We mourn for this attempt to silence the media. We mourn for the inevitable loss of jobs. We mourn for the 70 enablers in the house supposedly of the people’s representatives. We mourn for the victory of the monsters behind this.

But make no mistake. This is not forever. We will live to fight another day and victory, that sweet taste of victory, will be ours again.