Fear of shutdown haunts ABS-CBN anew

MANILA—Current efforts to take down ABS-CBN have drawn comparisons to events nearly half a century ago when the Philippines’ largest media network was shut down during martial law.

In September 1972, state troops stormed the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City in what was the beginning of a sweeping crackdown on independent news organizations.

The network was the prime target for then President Ferdinand Marcos, who later used its wide reach to broadcast government propaganda.

It wasn’t what Eugenio Lopez Sr. had in mind when he established Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) as an independent station in 1956, and merged it with Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) later.

The company had since grown into a media powerhouse, under the leadership of Lopez’s eldest son Geny.

It provided the country’s first marathon election coverage in 1967, broadcast Robert Kennedy’s funeral in 1968, and covered the historic lunar mission the following year.

But ABS-CBN ran into Marcos.

REAL POWER

At that time, there was widespread belief that the Lopezes “wielded more real power than any Filipino President ever had,” Joseph Lelyveld wrote in a 1975 article in the New York Times.

“The Lopezes evidently believed that their wealth and power would be threatened if President Marcos secured a permanent lease on office,” he said.

“The President seemed to feel he would never be able to consolidate his power so long as the Lopezes kept theirs.”

The family was forced to surrender their businesses to Marcos and his cronies, especially after Geny Lopez was arrested on a fake charge of conspiring to assassinate the president.

Marcos was toppled during the Edsa uprising in 1986 and the Lopezes regained their assets, including ABS-CBN, under the new administration of Corazon Aquino.

PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY

But 34 years later, the company is facing the possibility of another shutdown.

President Rodrigo Duterte had repeatedly threatened not to renew its broadcast franchise over allegedly unfair reporting and its failure to air a campaign ad in 2016.

The House of Representatives has since sat on several bills seeking a fresh 25-year franchise for ABS-CBN.

The government’s top lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida, earlier asked the Supreme Court to revoke the network’s existing franchise because of alleged violations.

The House later instructed the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to allow ABS-CBN to operate provisionally while it tackled its franchise application.

But Calida on May 3 warned the NTC against issuing a provisional authority in the absence of an actual franchise granted by Congress.

ABS-CBN’s franchise expires on May 4.

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“A free press is vital to a democratic society because it not only guarantees the publication and broadcast of a diversity of voices and opinions, it also holds those in power accountable,” said Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who has been calling on his colleagues to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise.

Following a Senate hearing on the franchise in February, Duterte accepted ABS-CBN’s apology over the unaired campaign ad.

He said he would not interfere with the network’s application for a new franchise.