ABS-CBN's summer of discontent

The sad episode that the Lopez-owned broadcast media network is currently undergoing is just like the struggles of Ricardo Dalisay's "Ang Probisyano". In the end, it will still be ABS-CBN that will win this war. A battle lost is just a segment to build momentum for the climax of this drama. What matters most is the happy ending.

One step backward, many steps forward. One retreat now, and many advances soon. That is the art of war. In fact, ABS-CBN is now getting the tremendous outpouring of public support, and a deluge of favorable opinions in the mainstream media and in the social platforms, against the strong-arm tactics of some powerful gods in Mount Olympus. In William Shakespeare's not-so-famous play “Richard III”, in Act One, Scene 1, Richard was expressing his discontent at the turn of events when his family was subjected to persecution and repression, leading him to a soliloquy: "Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York.” Winter is the metaphor for sorrows and summer for celebration.

This phrase written by Shakespeare was used by John Steinbeck in 1961 in his novel of the same title, and made a TV drama series in 1983 (starring Donald Sutherland) that grossed millions in 1983. It told a story of Ethan Allen, an upper middle-class American living in Long Island, New York, and whose family fortunes turned from bad to worse. They lost their grocery store to an Italian immigrant, who turned out to be an illegal alien. Well, in the case of ABS-CBN, Solgen Calida might be the new Italian immigrant, if you use Italy as a metaphor for Davao. In the end, the Lopezes, like the Allens shall come back to retake ABS-CBN with a vengeance.

The Lopezes are brilliant enough to understand that in the Philippines, politics is not divorced from business. If you want your business to prosper unhampered, you should play with fire and engage in backdoor politicking. That is what the Villars did when it became apparent that the man from La Mancha (another metaphor for Davao) was winning, Manny and Cynthia flew to Davao with loads of offerings to the incoming king. Look at the business of the Villars now, and look at the young DPWH Secretary serving in the Cabinet in a position that gives tremendous advantages to the Villar Empire. Look at MVP, berated at first, but wise and humble enough not to answer back, and instead bowed and kneeled. His businesses are constantly subjected to pressures but never subjected to lockdown.

And it is not only Manong Digong who plays this game. This is SOP even in the US. Marcos did this to the Lopezes, in the ‘70s despite the fact that it was Fernando and Eugenio Lopez of Meralco, Chronicle, and ABS, who bankrolled Marcoses' electoral battles with Macapagal in 1965 and Serging Osmeña in 1971. Cory Aquino also did this to Danding Cojuangco (her own cousin) when San Miguel Corporation in 1986 was taken from Danding and “returned” to Andres Soriano III. And Marcos did this to the Jacintos of Iligan Textile Mills, to the Osmeñas in Cebu, to the many other erstwhile oligarchs who refused to dance to the tune of “Pamulinawen”.

Erap's wisdom was expressed in his famous "weather-weather lang ‘yan.” There is a time for everything. In no time, the court will issue a TRO. Congress will pass a new law granting ABS-CBN its franchise and Ricardo Dalisay will resume his endless struggles that bring in billions for ABS-CBN. Then Calida shall have proven his point. The man from La Mancha shall have been recognized as the true author of Shakespeare's Winter of Discontent. And the Lopezes shall have learned the lesson that their grandparents first learned in the ‘70s. That is how the cookie crumbles. I knew this drama even before Cardo Dalisay was born.