ABS-CBN's simultaneous fights in many battlefronts

The strategists and tacticians of ABS-CBN should take another look at the Sun Tzu's “The Art of War”. This powerful, rich, and highly-influential network shouldn’t fight simultaneously in many fronts. Such a tactic may dissipate its bullets, divide its warriors, and detract its generals from the overall strategic goal. It may win some battles but, in the end, it may lose the war.

First, ABS-CBN is fighting the gods in the executive department, the NTC and the solicitor general. Do you think the officials there aren’t getting signals from Mount Olympus, the source of all executive prerogatives? If you do, think again. Of course, for PR purposes, Zeus distances himself from the fights being waged by his underlings. But ABS-CBN should have known better than causing the anger of the gods. Or, as Kim Chiu would advise in her own version of “The Art of War”, the Law of the Classroom, the moment ABS-CBN knew they have angered Zeus, they should have moved heaven and earth to make amends, to bow before the gods with peace offerings.

Second, ABS-CBN is fighting against many smaller gods in the legislative, both houses of Congress. Do they think that Speaker Alan Peter, the lord of the House and the sultan of Taguig, isn’t following instructions from Davao? Do you think that the Senate President, illustrious heir to Don Vicente Sotto, is not also dancing to the tune of Mount Olympus? If you do, think again. In his speech last Tuesday, the lord of the House mentioned that the worst victims of ABS-CBN in the last election for president and vice president was no other than Zeus and himself. And so, if the ABS-CBN's big guns are doing their homework, there’s only one god who could turn the tide against this beleaguered network.

Third, ABS-CBN is now bringing the battle to the Supreme Court, the apex judicial branch. In so doing, they have thrown their last card, ace, king, and all. They are betting all their chips. If they lose there, they have nowhere else to go. The lawyers will argue that ABS-CBN isn’t following the legal and jurisprudential principle of the hierarchy of courts, which the highest tribunal, in an en banc decision more than 10 years ago, in the case of St. Martin Funeral, has so clearly enunciated. Litigants shouldn’t go directly to the highest court. They should exhaust remedies before the Regional Trial Court and then to the Court of Appeals.

Fourth, ABS-CBN is fighting in the court of public opinion. It’s apparently using all media, broadcast, print, and online, and all social media platforms. It’s even using as a shield the so-called 11,000 employees, and are gathering oral testimonies of fans and followers who are distraught, disillusioned, and suffering from serious anxieties and mental anguish due allegedly to the god's cruel stopping of Ricardo Dalisay and Vice Ganda's varied exploits. They perhaps believe that these pressures on Congress as well as on the Supreme Court, not to mention, Mount Olympus, wouldn’t boomerang on them. On the contrary, I am seeing a lot of backlash from the many detractors of ABS-CBN in the mainstream and alternative media outlets.

If I were in the war room of ABS-CBN, I would gently remind them of Sun Tzu and Kim Chiu, as well as Carmi Martin's more down-to-earth desideratum, “Ang mundo ay isang malaking Quiapo. Maraming mandurukot, mandurugas, mga bulaan at falsificadong manghuhula.at mga walang sinasantong abortionista.” ABS-CBN is owned by honorable people who forgot to follow Kim Chiu's simple law of the classroom: “Huwag lumabas, at kung magkamali, ayusin agad.” In their brilliance, they forgot the most fundamental law, never to step on the toes of Zeus.