An innocuous info with earthshaking ramifications
True to the off-tangent nature of this column, I will dwell on something many, perhaps, did not care to think about. Some of those whose ears initially heard a flutter worth studying and talking about, probably eventually decided to forego it. I mention it here for academic purposes.
In the Senate investigation on the alleged violations of the franchise of ABS-CBN, innocuous information surfaced. Senator Bong Go mentioned, among other matters, the political campaign advertisements placed by then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte with ABS-CBN, even if already paid, were not telecast. To me, it was the first direct accusation against ABS-CBN of breach of contract. Go’s revelation, wasn’t relevant to the issue. If true, it had nothing to do with the renewal (or non-renewal) of the franchise. Such matter might be a viable cause of legal action for damages, but taking it up in the Senate was a misdirected missile. Even then, Go heavily scored against the cause of ABS-CBN. He dropped a proverbial bomb that somehow shattered their image.
The scene that followed was the innocuous information mentioned above. ABS-CBN top honcho Carlo Katigbak seized the opportunity to respond to the supposedly damning revelation of Sen Go. In a calm and forthright manner, he told the honorable senators (national television audience as well) that there were two kinds of TV advertisement contracts which then candidate Duterte and ABS-CBN entered into. One was “national placement” and the other, “local placement”. After explaining how one differed from the other, Katigbak mentioned that the national placement of the candidate was worth P117 million and every single second of it was aired. Meaning, ABS-CBN complied fully with its part of the advertising contract and it wasn’t true that ABS-CBN cheated Duterte. Differently said, the revelation of Go, was, in so far as the “national placement advertisement”, untruthful.
I listened intently to Katigbak when he stated that his company failed to telecast a small part of the “local placement”. Why only small? According to Katigbak, the contract involving local placement was valued at P65 million but ABS-CBN could only telecast an air time valued at P58 million. He then apologized to the president for failing to telecast the latter’s political ad valued at P7 million. By way of an explanation to such failure, Katigbak claimed that the government regulation of two minutes per hour for advertisement plugs made it impossible for the network to accommodate all advertisers and he added an exclamation point in telling his audience that his company returned a portion of the unaired ad.
In my view, that innocuous information has tremendous ramifications. The total value of the national placement (P127 million) and the local placement (P58 million) paid by then candidate Duterte to only one television company was P226 million. Such a huge sum of money far exceeded than the amount claimed by the president to be his fortune. We must remember that the president claimed his wealth does not exceed P40 million.
The law sets a limit of expenditures a candidate can spend and he is required to submit a verified statement of contributions and expenses. Did he breach the legal cap? Was this Duterte ad payment to Katigbak’s company entered in his SOCE? Considering that his wealth cannot pay for the ad he paid to ABS-CBN, who contributed the money? Can Comelec, ex mero motu, answer these questions?
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