Groups mark one year since ABS-CBN regional stations aired their last

August 28, 2021 marked the first year since ABS-CBN regional radio and TV stations aired their last following the House of Representatives’ rejection of their franchise bid. Over three decades of ABS-CBN’s regional broadcast service was forced to end a year ago.

Twelve regional and local language TV Patrol newscasts aired their finale on August 28 last year. These were TV Patrol North Luzon, Bicol, Palawan, Southern Tagalog, Central Visayas, Negros, Panay, Eastern Visayas, North Mindanao, South Central Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and Chavacano.

ABS-CBN was forced to close 53 regional radio and TV stations (or 21 regional stations) and retrench more than 4,000 workers by end of August last year due to financial losses. ABS-CBN reported losing P30 to 35 million every day in advertising revenues since the National Telecommunications Commission ordered ABS-CBN to stop its broadcast operations on May 5, 2020.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) led an online protest with the call #IbalikAngABSCBN.

“Today, we mark a year since our fellow media workers were silenced and the communities they served deprived of a source of verified information,” said NUJP in a statement on August 28.

Once the biggest broadcast network in the Philippines, ABS-CBN had the widest reach having the most radio and TV stations all over the country and the most number of workers at 11,000.

“While it is true that the network and some of its programming are still available online, the loss of regional stations hampers the flow of information to and from areas outside the capital,” said NUJP.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joined the call to bring back ABS-CBN.

“The closure of regional ABS-CBN stations and the rejection of ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal last year was a devastating blow to press freedom and labour rights in the Philippines,” said IFJ.

While asserting that ABS-CBN should be given a legislative franchise, IFJ said, ”Politicians should not have the ability to regulate which media organizations are allowed to broadcast or render thousands of media workers jobless.”

The Philippines slid two places from last year in the Global Press Freedom Index 2021 of the Reporters Without Borders, placing 138 out of 180 countries. Apart from killings and red-tagging of journalists, the tracker attributed to the ranking the refusal of Congress to grant the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN “depriving millions of Filipinos essential public interest reporting during the pandemic.”

Take ABS-CBN franchise ‘killers’ to task

Netizens and various groups also called for zero votes in next year’s elections for the ‘killers’ of ABS-CBN franchise.

While the hearings on the ABS-CBN franchise were ongoing last year, the hashtag #YestoABSCBN was  viral on social media. As if subverting the trending topic, when the day of the Congress vote came on July 10 last year, the vote was formulated as “voting to reject the franchise”, meaning a “Yes” vote was against granting the franchise.

The list of those who voted to reject ABS-CBN’s franchise application was not made immediately available, but those who have followed the voting process on the floor listed those who voted “Yes” as follows:

The 11 from the House Committee on Legislative Franchises who voted no to rejecting the ABS-CBN franchise—or those who voted to grant ABS-CBN a franchise—were: