By Herbert Vego
“BAKIT kami kumonti nang ganito na lang?”
That was how former actress and now Batangas 6th district Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto reacted to the mere 11 “yes” votes that the House legislative franchises committee rendered on the application for franchise renewal of ABS-CBN Corporation.
The overwhelming majority of 70 “no” votes effectively shut down the Philippines’ largest radio-TV network that had been trying to renew its franchise that expired in May this year.
If Vilma Santos was also wondering why Antique congresswoman Loren Legarda abstained from voting, it must be because the latter was one of the 14 major sponsors of the renewal bill.
“Seventy million Filipinos tune to its programs weekly,” the 14 had said in a joint statement. “Now more than ever, in the time of a pandemic, we need a vibrant and independent source of information and news to tell the people what is going on.”
Legarda cited “conflict of interest” to explain her abstention, allegedly because she was the host of the documentary series “Dayaw,” which aired on ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC).
Who would have thought she would play “neutral”? It was her stint as ABS-CBN news anchor that had catapulted her to pre-political fame.
However, was Legarda actually torn between the devil and the deep blue sea? You see, she is the mother of Leandro Legarda Leviste, founder of Solar Para Sa Bayan Corporation.
President Rodrigo Duterte had approved the granting of a 25-year franchise (Republic Act No. 11357) to the said company to energize remote areas that could not be reached by traditional distribution utilities. The company manufactures solar panels in Santo Tomas, Batangas.
While Malacañang Palace has repeatedly denied the President’s influence on the “70-11” turnout, the series of 13 hearings over the ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal at the House of Representatives had failed to turn around the contrary public perception.
How could the President have been “neutral” when it was he who had repeatedly threatened to block the renewal of the ABS-CBN’s franchise?
In a speech before new Malacañang officials on December 3, 2019, Duterte publicly told ABS-CBN reporters, “Your franchise will end next year. If you expect it to be renewed, I’m sorry. I will see to it that you’re out.”
Methinks the ABS-CBN issue has further “deglamorized” the President here and abroad, the “junking” having deprived 11,000 network employees of their means of survival at this time when millions of others are also losing jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New York Times opined in its July 10 issue that the decision of the Philippine legislature was “the latest major blow against the news media as President Rodrigo Duterte cracks down on outlets that have been critical of his leadership.”
Strange as it seems – since ABS-CBN is owned by the Lopezes of Iloilo – the Ilonggo voting members of the House franchise committee voted “no,” triggering speculations that hard-to-refuse amounts of money had changed hands, albeit contradictory to the claim of Rep. Eric Yap (ACT-CIS party-list).
Yap had accused an unnamed person from ABS-CBN of attempting to bribe him with P200 million to vote in favor of their franchise renewal.
Unbelievable!
It would have been foolish for the Lopezes to make that offer for a single vote, knowing they were going against the track record of the majority of the present 18th Congress that had never “disobeyed” Malacañang.
I bet Senate President Tito Sotto and Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano would not deny that.
-oOo-
While we have yet to hear from our friend Jose Ariel “Aye” Castañeda why he resigned from Iloilo City’s Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) to join MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power), we heard from the company’s PR man, Jon Cabrera, that he is doing “excellent” in his role as head of the apprehension team running after power pilferers using “jumpers” to avoid paying bills.
His team suspects at that at least 30,000 pilferers have gone “untouched” by the previous distribution utility, Panay Electric Co. (PECO), in connivance with its linemen. Their consumptions fall under “systems loss” that are charged to honest consumers.
At the end of 2019, PECO had a system loss of 9.03 percent, exceeding the 6.5-percent cap set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Around 5,000 of illegal power users have opted to take advantage of low-cost connections offered by MORE Power to the indigent. It is the only way they could avoid getting charged with power pilferage.
Under the law (RA 7832), illegal use of electricity is punishable by reclusion temporal or imprisonment of 12-20 years and/or payment of a fine ranging from P50,000 to P100,000.00.
Now that we know why we were paying so much during the time of PECO, we urge Aye, “Go, go, go.”
