Katherine Nicole O, Orillaneda

ABS-CBN Shutdown Podcast

Script
Hey guys, I’m Katherine and welcome to this podcast. In this podcast, I will analyze the
story behind the issue, evaluation of presence or lack of morality and ethics, the how and why
that certain event is moral/immoral, ethical/unethical.
Now, let’s begin, we are going to be looking at the issue of the ABS-CBN shutdown, this
is one of the greatest controversies in this year 2020 that shocked many Filipinos.
ABS-CBN is the largest and oldest TV network station in the Philippines, founded by the
Lopez family on the year 1940, and it got permanently shutdown by the government on July 10,
2020 due to the expiration of its congressional franchise, the cease and desist order issued by the
National Telecommunication Commission(NTC) and given the bad relationship with ABS-CBN
and President Duterte.
According from the article of Vice, the government grants the broadcasting frequencies
in the Philippines, in which companies are required to have a franchise that is approved by the
congress through legislation. ABS-CBN had last franchised on March 30, 1995 and was given
only for 25 years and was set to expire this year. ABS-CBN applied for a new franchise but the
government, refused to renew ABS-CBN franchise due to several law violations by the
company. According to the article of Philippine News Agency, there are eight violations found,
first(1) is that the Chairman Emeritus, Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III is a dual citizen, the
requirement for the ownership and management of mass media is that it should be a 100 percent
Filipino, second(2), Issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to foreigners which
allowed foreign ownership in ABS-CBN is violating the law, third(3), unlawful return of assets
to the Lopez family, fourth(4) , operating pay per view channel in its ABS CBN TV plus without
the approval from the National Telecommunications Commission, fifth(5), unauthorized use of
AMCARA’s legislative franchise, sixth(6), there are labor law violations as only 25 percent or
2,661 out of the total 11,701 total workers are regular employees. ABS-CBN state that the failure
of regulizing the workers is because workers are hired that last for a period of time, seventh(7),
unjust tax avoidance schemes as based on investigations, however ABS-CBN claimed they are
paying proper taxes . Eight(8), is due to biased reporting, inappropriate program content, and
political meddling.
Cease and desist order issued by the NTC means that business are to be stopped due to
alleged illegal activities, in the case of ABS-CBN, there is an absence of Congressional franchise
required by law, as reported by Neil Mercado. As NTC cited Republic Act No. 3846 or the Radio
Control Law which states that “no person, firm, company, association, or corporation shall
construct, install, establish, or operate a radio transmitting station, or radio receiving station used
for commercial purposes, or a radio broadcasting station, without having first obtained a
franchise therefor from the Congress of the Philippines.”
 The Duterte had a bad relationship with ABS-CBN. As based on the report of ABS-CBN,
Duterte’s paid campaign ads for 2016 elections was not aired, the President Duterte went and
said, “If you expect that (the franchise) will be renewed, I’m sorry. I will see to it that you’re
out.”, which lead to the Office of Solicitor General to doubt ABS-CBN franchise.
With the ABS-CBN shutdown, the company’s worker of over 11,000 had lost its job as
reported by Franco Luna , and thus the ABS-CBN workers had protest to the government to
renew the franchise.
Now that the story behind the issue is done, we are now to evaluate its presence or lack of
morality and how and why that certain event is moral/immoral, ethical/unethical.
There are 5 arguments to evaluate,
1. ABS-CBN’s absence of Congressional franchise is immoral, it is immoral
due to not abiding the law, a law that sets the society to functions right.
2. ABS-CBN failing to air the ads of President Duterte is unethical as based
on my standards, it is unfair for some congressman’s ads to get aired while Duterte have
not. It is an unethical duty when the company fails to provide the client.
3. ABS-CBN shutdown leading the company’s workers to lose jobs is
unethical as more people will be losing jobs and thus giving them hard life especially in a
financial terms. On the article by Mencken, in the morality and benevolence, it is natural
to care for the people, in which made me think it is unethical.
4. Cease and desist order issued by NTC on ABS-CBN is moral as NTC
abide the law, the abiding of law makes the rules in society functions well.
5. ABS-CBN’s unjust tax avoidance schemes is unethical, as evading
billions in taxes is unfair, as many company are able to pay taxes but they did not, those
taxes are a great help for the pandemic as we need money. This applies to the social
contract theory, as paying taxes is our moral duty, it is morally required to balance the
money for people to live as based on the article by Mencken.

You have come to an end of this podcast, I hope you enjoyed this podcast and learned the
story behind the ABS-CBN shutdown and, the moral and ethical evaluation. Thank you for
listening, and have a great day.
 References:
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/02/25/1995939/abs-cbn-shutdown-will-
worsen-state-unemployment-labor-group
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1108624
https://www.vice.com/en/article/9359k8/abs-cbn-shutdown-duterte-philippines-
explained
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/23/20/timeline-abs-cbn-franchise-renewal
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1270074/ntc-issues-cease-and-desist-order-vs-abs-cbn
https://theaseanpost.com/article/why-did-congress-deny-abs-cbn-franchise