PH, Southeast Asia spared from Covid-19?

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THE Yellows must be gnashing their teeth that, so far, the incidence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (officially called Covid-19 by the World Health Organization) hasn’t been of such a horrible scale in our country as that in South Korea (7,513 cases; 54 deaths) or in countries on the other side of the globe from China — Italy (9,172 cases; 97 deaths) and Iran (7,161 cases; 2,327 deaths).

By contrast, the Philippines, which is geographically closer to China than Italy and Iran, and in the past two years has had an influx of Chinese tourists and online-gaming employee, has had, by the latest report, only 35 cases and one death. While some media will likely report today headlines like “Covid-19 cases jump” or something like that, 35 cases, compared to the thousands in several countries, is still a relatively low figure.

Some cynics claim that this might be due to the fact that those afflicted with Covid-19 had simply not been reporting it to doctors, much less going to a hospital for treatment. This is improbable though.

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Media owners mold their journalists’ minds

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THE Philippine Star last March 5 ran a front-page story titled, “SWS: 62% of Pinoys believe AFP can’t defend WPS.”

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) angrily wrote the newspaper’s editors, pointing out that this was the opposite of what its report said, that its survey found that “62 percent of adult Filipinos have much confidence in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in defending the territories of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).”

The Star didn’t even apologize for its mistake, and simply ran a shorter piece the next day – buried in the inside pages – that accurately reported the SWS survey, without mentioning that the same reporter’s piece the previous day was totally false.

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House mocks ABS-CBN franchise application

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MAYBE it’s just me, but the February 26 letter of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Legislative Franchises to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) sounds either like it’s mocking ABS-CBN Corp.’s application for a franchise or sending the message to the firm to give up and just prepare to close down.

First, the letter signed by its chairman, Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez and concurred in by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano took a swipe at Sen. Mary Grace Poe’s hearing last week, telling the NTC that the House “has the exclusive jurisdiction and authority to act on franchise applications.”

Second, the letter says, “We enjoin you to grant ABS-CBN Corp. a provisional authority to operate effective May 4, 2020 until such time that the House has made a decision on its application.”

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‘Dissecting Duterte’

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ONCE in a while I chance upon a Facebook post that I feel should be read by more people. One such post is by a certain Jun Abines, whose ordinariness is highlighted by the fact that he was in his youth a “billiard boy” in a pool hall, who obviously struggled to obtain enough education in schools in Cebu and get an accountant’s degree.

I think his piece with the above title, which I edited a bit for misspellings and grammatical errors, reflects what most ordinary Filipinos feel about President Duterte, which explains his record-breaking satisfaction ratings. The latest poll conducted in December by the Social Weather Stations shows that 82 percent of respondents are satisfied with him. His average net satisfaction rating for 2019 is 68 percent, beating the 63 percent of Cory Aquino in 1986, which was at the height of the Yellow Cult’s hold on the nation’s consciousness with its propaganda weapons as ABS-CBN extolling her virtues daily and the supposed glory of the People Power Revolt.

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Kapamilya: Poe’s family made and will continue to make, money from ABS-CBN

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IT was sheer hubris for Sen. Mary Grace Poe to have called a hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Service last Monday that was virtually a propaganda program for ABS-CBN Corp. in its desperate move to have its congressional franchise to operate, which expires on May 4, renewed.

Does she think Filipinos — and include there journalists, but probably exclude several senators — are too stupid not to know her profitable links to ABS-CBN, that the main income of her family is now from that network?

For chrissakes, her mother Susan Roces (Jesusa Sonora) and she herself made, and will continue to make, tons of money from ABS-CBN operations.

Her mother plays the role of a main character (Flora “Lola Kap”) in ABS-CBN’s hugely successful drama “Ang Probinsiyano,” which has been running for over four years, with about 1,136 episodes. Lola Kap is a village captain and the sagacious grandmother of the series’ hero Cardo (played by Coco Martin), who imparts life lessons in most every episode.

Assuming that Roces gets a very conservative P200,000 per episode, that means income for her of over P230 million so far from that ABS-CBN production. That’s a fair estimate, considering that lead actor Martin is known to have become a billionaire from his earnings from “Ang Probinsyano.”

ABS-CBN Corp. Chairman Martin Lopez (seated left) with Sen. Mary Grace Poe (center) and her mother Susan Roces (seated right) at the latter’s birthday bash in July 2019 PHOTO: PHILSTAR.COM

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Senate hearing on ABS-CBN an ‘award-winning’ production

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IF you watched the Senate committee hearing the other day on ABS-CBN Corp.’s franchise application that was called by Sen. Mary Grace Poe, you’ll be as convinced as I was that it was a production mounted by the media giant; so expertly done that if it had been a movie, it would have been an award-winner.

It was, however, one of the clearest demonstrations I’ve ever seen of an oligarch at work and why oligarchs are oligarchs: they can expertly use the institutions and leaders of the State, and cloak their agenda of perpetuating their rule as economic elites.

The quality the hearing shares with ABS-CBN’s telenovelas is that it has no existence in the real world. Hold marathon hearings as much as Poe can call, the Senate has no business tackling ABS-CBN’s franchise application at this time.

Going by the Constitution, it is the House of Representatives that first has to pass a bill to give a company the franchise to use the state-owned radio spectrum frequencies and only after the Senate deliberated on it — whether to pass it for the President’s signature, reject it or return to the House for any changes it wants done.

The Lopez oligarchs who own ABS-CBN, Poe and the Yellow senators may gloat over the propaganda success of their production, but it could be the kiss of death for the network’s application for a franchise. The House will certainly not let pass the Senate’s grandstanding on this issue and extract vengeance by just sitting on the application. (more…)

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ABS-CBN’s head honcho Gabby Lopez is a US citizen

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EUGENIO “Gabby” La’O Lopez 3rd — who has, since, 1987, run media giant ABS-CBN Corp., of which he is a major owner — is a United States citizen.

He travels the world using his American passport, the current one issued by the Los Angeles Passport Agency, sources with access to US and Philippine government records disclosed.

This is a patent violation of our Constitution’s Article XVI, Section 11 (1): “The ownership and management of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly-owned and managed by such citizens.”

This means ABS-CBN has been violating the 1995 law to operate broadcast media, whose very first sentence states that the franchise is “subject to the provisions of the Constitution.”

Congress would shame itself if it renews the franchise of a company that has trampled on our Constitution, its owners managing to hide Lopez’s citizenship because of its power over past administrations.

Lopez acquired Philippine citizenship only in 2004, a year after the Dual Citizenship Law took effect. This law allowed natural-born Filipinos who acquired citizenship in another country to acquire Philippine citizenship after a process specified by the law.

The media behemoth’s top man and major stockholder: An American

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Yellows’ fake ‘defense expert’ calls military idiots, predicts coups vs Duterte

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WHAT a gullible media we have.

Since 2016, one Jose Antonio Custodio has been interviewed by so many media outlets ranting against President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and the military. He recently declared that the military would soon topple Duterte, angry at the latter’s termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

He said that before in 2016, when charges were filed against Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th.

Mainstream media — among them the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Philippine Star, GMA 7, ABS-CBN and the Salim-controled network TV5 — describe Custodio as a “military expert,” “military historian” or a “defense analyst.” He’s been such a regular source of media men’s “analysis” that he complained in his Facebook (FB) account that he was starting to dislike early morning calls from the press.

He doesn’t hide his arrogance and odium for the military, writing on FB: “I just love the idiocy in the Philippine military and Defense sector. So, you want to have a status of forces agreement with China to replace the PH-US VFA?”

Expert maybe, but on other things. FROM JOSE ANTONIO CUSTODIO’S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

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Vice Ganda, Boy Abunda to convince Congress to give ABS-CBN franchise?

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IT is the height of servility to an oligarch for Sen. Franklin Drilon and other Yellow legislators to be still trying to give ABS-CBN Corp. the franchise to operate in the weeks till March when its current permit, given in 1995 at the height of the Yellow Rule, expires.

For chrissakes, neither the Lopez brothers, who own the media network together with a US fund manager, nor the firm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Martin “Mark” Lopez — the 42-year-old nephew of its top honcho Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez 3rd — have even appeared in public to argue why the firm should be given a franchise in the first place.

Are Drilon and his gang so afraid of these oligarchs they can’t call them to Congress to argue their case? Have they stooped so low as to be talking only to the network’s lower-ranking minions and, as I was told, female celebrities?

How cowardly — or arrogant — can a firm in deep trouble be? The ABS-CBN statement on the filing of the quo warranto case against it by Solicitor General Jose Calida wasn’t even signed by any of the company’s officials.

Why aren’t they talking? ABS-CBN Chairman Emeritus Eugenio ‘Gabby’ Lopez 3rd (left) and Chairman Martin ‘Mark’ Lopez. PHOTO ABS-CBN

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The law and SC ruling are clear: No franchise for ABS-CBN, no broadcast

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THE law passed by the 9th Congress in March 1995 that gave ABS-CBN the authority to operate as a TV and radio network is crystal clear: “The franchise shall be for a term of twenty-five years from the date of effectivity of this Act.”

Period. Absolutely nothing in that law (and in all franchises) has a qualification that when that 25-year period ends, ABS-CBN can still operate until the end of the current 18th Congress if there are pending bills to renew the franchise.

Only if the current Congress renews its franchise can ABS-CBN continue to operate, sources knowledgeable about this current issue explained. Without a franchise, all the frequencies automatically revert back to government, they said.

There is no provision in the law–which exists only in the imagination of a few members of Congress, amazingly even in the minds of Senate President Vicente Sotto and House Speaker Alan Cayetano — that says that ABS-CBN can operate without a franchise until the end of the current Congress if there are pending bills to give it such authority.

It is astonishing that with the tens of millions of pesos in research funds the two leaders of the two chambers of Congress have, they haven’t heard of nor read the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in the Associated Communications v. National Telecommunications Commission (GR 144109).

Don’t Sotto and Cayetano have access to the internet? The SC already ruled on the issue nearly two decades ago.

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