ONE good thing a-bout this ABS-CBN issue is that it has starkly exposed the intellectual bankruptcy and hypocrisy of the diehard Yellow, anti-Duterte camp as well as their secret sympathizers
who would jump to oppose every major move they think is the President’s against their allies.At the head of this pack are the 13 hypocritical and mostly intellectually challenged senators who issued a Senate resolution on May 7 asking the National Telecommunications Commission to allow ABS-CBN — and all its subsidiaries and affiliates — to reopen until its “franchise renewal.”
I can’t fathom though why Sen. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, who knew how ABS-CBN savaged her father during the last elections — who should therefore realize how much this oligarch can undermine democracy — signed the resolution. Zubiri? He said ABS-CBN should not be closed down as he watches ANC as soon as he wakes up. Now I’m convinced Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao has had too many fists bang his head in 20 years. I shouldn’t even devote a sentence to Manuel “Lito” Lapid.
These 13 are also so intellectually dishonest as to claim that ABS-CBN should be allowed to operate without a franchise because the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Broadcast was allowed to operate for about a year even if it still didn’t have a franchise. With that kind of background, it is not surprising that their second argument is that we need “access to up-to-date news by a free and unfettered media” during this pandemic.
There is, of course, the appeal to emotion: “Kawawa naman ABS-CBN employees, which Maria Ressa said total 11 million.” Shouldn’t they blame the Lopezes, particularly Gabby Lopez, for putting his ego above the welfare of his employees, as I narrated in my column last Wednesday? This certainly won’t be the first time that a company is closed by government because it violated our laws.
This ABS-CBN issue was settled seven years ago in the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision on the Associated Communications vs National Telecommunications Commission . No franchise, no operation.
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