It is hugely surprising, even incredibly strange, that some people, lawmakers particularly, are surprised that the ABS-CBN has been shutdown. It is surprisingly irrational that the lawmakers have piled it on the National Telecommunication Commission for the closure.
From the beginning up to the eve of the network’s closure, all indications pointed to the fait accompli. The President had wanted it so: he would block its franchise renewal, he threatened time and again, and, at one time, urged its owners to sell it.
The House of Representatives had hemmed and hawed on the pending bills for the franchise renewal. There were other more pressing priorities, like creating 1 million jobs in comparison to the 11,000 jobs that would be lost if the media station were closed. Besides, the network had had transgressions that must be dealt with, and no less than the House speaker had urged the owners for some soul-searching. Some kind of a Faustian deal, perhaps?
In any case, nothing to really worry about : ABS-CBN could operate even without a renewed franchise. A resolution was passed in the House directing the NTC to issue a provisional authority to keep the network on air while the House sat on the bills for, heavens know, how long.
It would have been naive for NTC officials not have read something between the lines, or they must have been properly briefed for any eventuality.
As it turned out, the NTC is fully blamed for reneging on its promise, supposedly under oath, that he would issue the expected PA, and the ABS-CBN would live happily ever after. But that would have been a egregious deviation from what looked like an irreversible plan.
Between following the law and a threat of contempt by the House, it was a no-brainer for the NTC officials. It was a choice between being possibly detained in the House for some days, perhaps, weeks and or languishing in jail for a longer period, maybe years, and forfeiting hard-earned benefits from government if a graft case were filed against them before the Ombudsman.
No less than the alter ego of the President had warned them of the consequences of not complying with law. (Remember, an alter ego is not supposed to have an opinion other than that of the master ego). And he has proof to show he meant what he said: a chief justice was removed from office not too long ago by his quo warranto weapon.
Obviously, the lesser evil was more preferable if you go by the cost/benefit analysis.
“There are crimes of passions and there are crimes of logic, and the boundary is not clearly defined,” the French novelist Albert Camus once wrote.
If you ask Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, the problem is with the latter, especially where the House leaderships are involved. The NTC cannot be blamed for simply obeying the law and not the House’s bidding. The House makes the laws but is not the law. The NTC is being excoriated for the House’s own failure to act , which is to either deny or approve the expiring franchise of the network. The accusing finger is pointed in wrong direction.
Even the Opposition tried its best to change the game plan. When Sen. Franklin Drilon sponsored a resolution expressing the body’s sentiment on allowing the network to operate pending a franchise renewal, he was not so much using law as good faith and good sense. Somehow, it was hoped that it would pave for a win-win solution.
An opinion by the DEpartment of Justice favoring the NTC granting a PA to ABS-CBN turned out to be lighter than a paper weight on legal documents. It’s not binding on a private party, DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra belatedly clarified.
Ultimately, President Dutere’s acceptance of ABS-CBN’s apology for its non-airing of then presidential candidatate’s political ads was overly misread. Which betrayed their fractured, if not a deep, understanding of how to deal with their implacable adversary, whether he was just a marketing client or a political superior. Hubris was taken out of the calculus.
The Supreme Court, the last bastion of hope, has yet to rule on related case filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida on the network’s franchise revocation. As it is now, the issue is already moot and academic, and the SC justices can breathe more easily.
To make things worse, everything was overtaken by the COVID 19 crisis that, unfortunately for ABS-CBN, served as convenient excuse for any meaningful action, or the lack of it.
Partly, the ABS-CBN may have run out luck. Partly, it may have been due to some strategic flaws or shortcomings. A little silver lining comes from Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque who has disclosed that Duterte will not take it against any congressman who will vote in favor of a new franchise for ABS-CBN.
That’s pleasantly dicey.
