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More than 400 employees, retirees at risk if IBC shuts down in 2023, says CEO

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Raffy Cabristante, ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2212769" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>MANILA — About 300 employees and more than a hundred retirees of the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) may risk losing their incomes if the broadcaster closes shop in 2023, its president said Monday.The lives of these workers will be &quot;detrimentally affected&quot; by the closure if IBC is not given any funds in the 2023 budget, IBC president Hexilon Alvarez told ABS-CBN TeleRadyo.He also noted that the government-controlled network has &quot;outstanding obligations&quot; not just to their employees, but also to their retirees who have yet to receive the full amount of what was promised to them under their collective bargaining agreement (CBA).&quot;We have about 146 retirees. And with whatever resources we have, [we] are trying to pay them off a staggered basis, monthly,&quot; Alvarez said.&quot;If this would be the case, 300 lives plus their families would be detrimentally affected and we would have a very difficult time,&quot; he added.Alvarez said IBC has since written an appeal to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for it to issue an erratum on the proposed 2023 national budget.IBC employees&#x27; union president Alberto Liboon called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to take immediate action to avoid the network&#x27;s closure.&quot;Pakiusap po namin kay Pangulong Bongbong Marcos, sana matulungan po kami.... Huwag po sana ipasara para magpatuloy po kami sa pagseserbisyo sa bayan,&quot; he said.Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles first raised the concern of IBC&#x27;s state in a pitch to the House Appropriations Committee on Friday, after noting that not a single centavo of her office&#x27;s proposed P1.2-billion budget was allotted to the broadcaster.In the 2023 proposed budget, the Office of the Press Secretary&#x27;s attached agencies PTV, IBC, Apo Production Unit, National Printing Office (NPO), News and Information Bureau (NIB), and the Bureau of Broadcast Services (BBS) will get a combined amount of P748.335 million.Of this figure, P125.15 million will go to PTV, zero to IBC, zero to Apo Production Unit, P17.1 million to NPO, P140.09 million to NIB, and P465.977 million to BBS.&quot;Sa IBC po, ito po makikita na natin, na humingi kami sa personnel services, MOOE at capital outlay para maituloy natin ang pag-broadcast ng IBC. Pero na-zero na po sila completely,&quot; Cruz-Angeles had said.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/02/22/ibc-13-to-shut-down-by-january-2023-unless-funded">IBC-13 to shut down by January 2023 unless funded, says press secretary</a></li></ul><div>&#x27;BLEEDING ASSET&#x27;</div>Alvarez had described IBC as a &quot;bleeding asset&quot; of the government, a situation that the network has been in for years now.When he assumed the post as IBC president in 2021, his leadership&#x27;s mandate was to improve the network&#x27;s standing to be able to request for additional tax subidies.&quot;IBC-13 was in a lot of debt, major debt,&quot; he said.One of the major revenue streams the network had, Alvarez said, was the distance-learning program DepEd TV, in partnership with the Department of Education.With the gradual return of face-to-face classes in public schools, DepEd TV ceased operations last June.&quot;Since then, we have been gearing towards a platform that is really focused on education, not just education but more of a learning channel, where we will also be putting out parallel programming that has to do with improving the abilities of our citizen with regard to finding jobs,&quot; Alvarez said.Another source of income for the network, he noted, is its joint venture agreement with R-II Builders, Inc., which saw 3.6 hectares of IBC&#x27;s land in Broadcast City be converted into a residential area.&quot;The funds that were used were paying off, little by little, the salaries of the employees, throughout the last 10 years. That was actually the story of how IBC was able to survive the last 10 years. They used their share to settle other debts and obligations,&quot; Alvarez said.He also admitted that there is still a &quot;bit of contention&quot; on whether or not IBC has been paid in full in the said agreement, which the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged in 2019.According to its website, IBC-13 has a 25-year franchise to operate and maintain radio and television broadcasting stations in the country, that was approved by Congress in July 2000.

About 300 employees and 146 retirees of IBC-13 may risk losing their incomes if it closes shop in 2023, its president said.

More than 400 employees, retirees at risk if IBC shuts down in 2023, says CEO

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More than 400 employees, retirees at risk if IBC shuts down in 2023, says CEO

Raffy Cabristante,

ABS-CBN News

Published September 05, 2022 09:24 PM PHT

Read More:

IBC

IBC-13

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Trixie Cruz-Angeles

2023 national budget

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