Caesar and ABS-CBN

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

—Soren Kierkegaard

By Alex P. Vidal

SIXTY senators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, took turns in stabbing to death Julius Caesar at the Theater of Pompey on March 15, 44 B.C.

Seventy congressmen, led by Rodante Marcoleta Cassius and Michael Defensor Brutus, murdered ABS-CBN in the House Joint Committee for Legislative Franchises, Good Governance and Public Accountability on July 10, 2020.

What did the Roman senators gain and accomplish after killing Emperor Caesar?

Nothing.

Except that history was so cruel to them. 

They had to escape outside Rome after being chased by angry Romans who burned their houses and other edifices.

Cassius and Brutus both committed suicide after being crushed one after the other by the combined forces of Mark Antony (Caesar’s trusted lieutenant) and Octavian (Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew who became Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C.

As their primary source of news, public affairs program, and entertainment, Filipinos love ABS-CBN dearly as the Romans admired and loved Caesar as the symbol of their strength and dominance before Jesus was born.

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What did the 70 congressmen gain and accomplish when they murdered ABS-CBN, by the way?

Nothing except, perhaps, helping bloat heavily the ego of a dictator. 

Will history be also cruel to them?

Let us wait and see.

History has always been cruel to tyrants, oppressors, rapscallions, and egregious political lackeys like the 70 solons.  

It was ancient Greece that first experienced tyranny on a large scale both from the external threat posed to their small city-states by the mighty Persian empire and from the tendency of their own politics to veer between extremes of tyranny and anarchy. 

A change in government usually meant the new winners would oppress the previous winners, prosecuting them and seizing their property. 
Responsible self-government under the rule of law was fragile.

Waller R. Newell, professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Carleton University, warned that different categories of tyrannies emerged over the ages that have helped to classify and condemn tyranny and other exploitative forms of authority, and to encourage self-governing societies. 

We can still apply those categories today.

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But the 70 congressmen don’t need to escape with their tales wagging like Cassius, Brutus, and their co-conspirators in Ceasar’s murder while the Filipinos grieve for ABS-CBN’s demise. 

It will be their respective constituents who will kick their asses come election day.

What the 70 congressmen did was already equivalent to a political suicide.

Even in “death”, the Filipinos will continue to love and support ABS-CBN the way the Romans honored and immortalized their beloved Caesar.

It was fundamentally and logically wrong to eliminate a media institution that has been functioning as a major pillar of Philippine democracy over flimsy reasons.

It was pathetically erroneous and a monumental blunder on the part of the government to treat ABS-CBN like an ordinary pizza parlor or ice cream manufacturing company when its primary and paramount function is to safeguard democracy as media watchdog.    

Although we find it hard to comprehend why they would hate ABS-CBN with such mind-boggling magnitude and even “celebrated” the network’s defeat like the people of Moses who worshipped the golden calf, we can never hate back those who had sought to guillotine the country’s hitherto leading broadcasting network that employed 11,000 workers nationwide.

There is history as the final arbiter.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

  

My media colleagues fight for ABS-CBN

“When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.”

—Christopher Dodd

By Alex P. Vidal

ONE of the most heart-piercing and scintillating declarations made by a media practitioner on the ABS-CBN issue was issued recently by Iloilo broadcast journalist Novie Guazo.

In his Facebook account, Guazo, one of the best broadcasters in the Philippines today,  wrote: “Please count me in! Like you and me, ABS CBN is not perfect, but the good outweighs the bad. Regardless of what electoral colors we are on, the issue is very clear. Lopez is a filipino as per DOJ. Tax obligations are clear as per BIR. Full filipino ownership is clear as per SEC. And labor obligations are clear as per DOLE. There is no reason why the 11,000 employees shall lose their jobs  all because of egos of men. Ego is a journey to nowhere.”

Another Ilonggo journalist, Peter Jimena, commented: “If the ABS-CBN has no grave misgiving to the government, why not allow it to go back to its normal business? This will help the 11,000 employees feed their family & our almost bankrupt gov't. to generate taxes. Its return to business will also drive away the stress of those under self quarantine at their homes due to the pandemic.” 

Jimenea added: “The people are already hungry, then why still deprive them of entertainment to cushion the impact of poverty and disillusion in their minds? Let ABS-CBN back on air for the millions of people that needed them compared to the few egocentric souls in the gov't. I could only hope our legislators will take this message to the heart.”

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Formerly an ABS-CBN Iloilo reporter, Erly Garcia, now connected with the Iloilo Provincial Capitol, lamented: “The Elizaldes own Manila Broadcasting Co., Cebu Broadcasting Co., Philippine Broadcasting Corp., and Pacific Broadcasting System Inc. Florete of Bombo Radyo owns Consolidated Broadcasting System, Newsounds Broadcasting Network and Peoples Broadcasting  Service. Each company mentioned above has its own franchise granted by Congress.”

Garcia asked: “Why is it that certain congressmen are making an issue about the connection of the Lopez-owned ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. to Amcara Broadcasting Network?  ABS-CBN claimed that it already divested their shares from Amcara on January 2019. But given the above examples of MBC and Bombo Radyo, it appears that there's no violation even if the Lopezes own both ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and Amcara Broadcasting Network, Inc.”

And finally, Gemma Villanueva, one of the original ABS-CBN Iloilo reporters, appealed to all: “I humbly ask you, my family, my friends, everyone here, if you can kindly support and help us fight for our jobs.

Trabahong malinis at marangal. Naniniwala ako na hindi po kami nakakasama sa nakararami. Hindi perpekto, pero isang responsableng kumpanya po ang aming pinagtratrabahuhan. May respeto sa tao, sa mga empleyado. Laging naghahangad na makatulong sa iba. Hindi po pakitang tao. Totoo. Tanungin ninyo ang mga kakilala ninyong malapit na nagtratrabaho sa ABS-CBN para malaman ninyo ang totoo.”

She added: “We deserve the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise. If you can find it in your heart to pray for us and help us voice out the need to bring back ABS-CBN, please do so. I will appreciate it. To some, or most of you, this may not be important. But THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ME AND ALL OTHERS THAT WILL BE AFFECTED NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. This is one time that I will ask you to post on FB or write to your congressmen...YES TO ABS-CBN FRANCHISE RENEWAL.”

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Our esteemed colleague, Inday Espina-Varona, a well-known journalist in the country who hails from Bacolod City, bewailed: “Today’s (July 6) congressional hearings on ABS-CBN made the Mad Tea Party posse look like solid, upstanding folk. Boying Remulla complaining of bullying was fascinating. Does the man ever look into the mirror? And he just kept skidding down that slippery slope.

“By nightfall, he was complaining of THIS: ‘Doon na lang sa creative department nila, paano nila pini-picture ang mga public servant, mga naglilingkod sa bayan, di ba laging masama?... Wala silang ginawa kundi banatan na lang tayo.’

“Sweet lord, he now wants to be a director or producer. Well, hasn’t Boying Remulla read bestseller books, classic novels? Someone please  give him a list of film honors through the years. (Not to say the teleseryes are classics, but...) Mr Remulla—dang, a few years down the road this hearing will be inspiration for many a film or tv series on the ugly side of power.

“Then there’s the inconvenient tidbit that pulled the rug from under Barzaga: turns out, some of Mar Roxas’ 2016 ads also failed to air. 

Likewise, Garin threw the “dilawan” chanting into disarray, by intimating the network’s Dengvaxia coverage was aimed at putting the previous admin in a bad light. (Agree that some commentaries and stories may have been ewww—but ditto with most other news outfits.) Also, that isn’t a franchise issue. There are laws that allow redress for  offending reportage.

“Then Lito Atienza sent a zinger: The DOJ has already recommended your indictment... Prepare yourself for your legal defense and not in this congressional hearing. Your cause and you case has nothing to do with #ABSCBNfranchise application.

“These honorables also want to be editors. Except their concept of news is journalists accepting whatever the powers say as the true, the good and the beautiful. 

“At some points, it reminded me of the attempt to pass legislation on the Right to Reply, which basically was just a ploy to manage the news —demanding that journalists ignore the elements of news, or context, or nuance, or fact-checking by running their statements and releases en toto. 

“Think of Mike Defensor wanting to spin his statements out of existence despite the public record

“Bias: The Comelec said no political party and candidate have complained against ABS-CBN for being bias, for being partial, for violation of Omnibus Election Code.

“The NTC, which closed down ABS-CBN, has acknowledged there is no pending case filed by any person against ABS-CBN for violating the franchise given by Congress nor its Certificate of Public Convenience.

Behind the populist rhetoric, Duterte’s legislative henchmen and their apologists clearly see contrarian views and critical news coverage as a danger to power. 

“More than that, despite the chest-beating for the masa, they obviously have contempt for Filipinos’ ability to think for themselves. 

Those who blow hot air about brainwashing clearly wish to have a monopoly on “democratic spaces”—in short, tyranny.

“We earlier had Duterte’s security officials whining that public outrage over the closure of ABS-CBN was all a communist conspiracy. 

Now we have legislators equating organic criticism as yet another conspiracy. 

“Few are buying that. The array of groups, from various political persuasions and sectors, speaking out and criticising them, is not about ABS-CBN’s imaginary power to control. It’s all about people having enough of overreach and abuse of power.

“Browbeating and raging at people invited to legislative hearings do not diminish them. It diminishes legislators and their oaths of office. That’s also what Malacanang has failed to learn. May hangganan ang pananakot ninyo.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Logic and common sense vs ABS-CBN bashers

“Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.”

—Lewis Carroll

By Alex P. Vidal

LOGIC and common sense will demolish the arguments of those who continue to cling to an absurd assertion that no violation of press freedom was involved in the harassment incurred by the ABS-CBN from the vindictive Duterte administration.

ABS-CBN is a media institution, not an ice cream or a rubber shoes manufacturing company. 

A media institution is a vital cog of democracy; it’s a flesh and blood of the Fourth Estate every democratic government in the world holds dearly.

Logic and common sense will be the main obstacles in their ridiculous stand as they continue to agitate for the gigantic media network’s permanent closure after it was forced to sign off on May 5 by virtue of the “cease and desist” order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

It’s actually a battle between facts and data combined and emotions and politics combined.

Interestingly, those who loudly and viciously demanded for ABS-CBN’s permanent closure were mostly characters who loathed any criticism leveled against their “emperor”, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

They were the “fanatics” who immediately would run berserk if Mr. Duterte was criticized.

For them, Mr. Duterte is a perfect leader who can’t commit a mistake. They will eat alive those who dare cross the president’s path.

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They attacked the ABS-CBN not because ABS-CBN is wicked; not because they were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that ABS-CBN’s existence was inimical to the interest of the public, but because Mr. Duterte was at loggerheads with the leading network.

It would have been another story if they made the same stand and were already spewing venomous expletives against the ABS-CBN with the same intensity even before Mr. Duterte’s conflict with the network became known worldwide.

Such irrational enmity toward ABS-CBN can’t reconcile with common sense and sound judgement. Basta nalang nainis sa ABS-CBN only because the president was inis na inis sa ABS-CBN?

In other words, if Mr. Duterte had praised and made friends with the ABS-CBN, they would also sing hallelujah to the ABS-CBN and would never lambast the network?

That’s why I’m worried if some people have become fanatics which is synonymous to irrationality.

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Below are some of the main claims and allegations of the viral video on the spread of virus that linked prominent personalities in the U.S. taken down by Youtube, Facebook and other social and mainstream media platforms for its inaccuracies and unproven allegations, along with the facts presented by Science.

Video Interview: Dr. Judy Mikovits has been called one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation.

Mikovits had authored 40 scientific papers and wasn’t widely known in the scientific community before she published the 2009 Science paper claiming a link between a new retrovirus and CFS. The paper was later proven erroneous and retracted.

Video: Her 1991 doctoral thesis revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Mikovits’s Ph.D. thesis, “Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes,” had no discernible impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Video Interview : At the height of her career, Dr. Mikovits published a blockbuster article in the journal Science. The controversial article sent shock waves through the scientific community, as it revealed that the common use of animal and human fetal tissues was unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases.

The paper revealed nothing of the sort; it only claimed to show a link between one condition, CFS, and a mouse retrovirus.

Mikovits: I was held in jail, with no charges.

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The district attorney in Washoe county, Nevada, filed a criminal complaint against Mikovits that charged her with illegally taking computer data and related property from WPI. The charges were dropped, in part because of legal troubles faced by her former employer.

Mikovits: Heads of our entire HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) colluded and destroyed my reputation and the Department of Justice and the (Federal Bureau of Investigation) sat on it, and kept that case under seal.

Mikovits has presented no direct evidence that HHS heads colluded against her.

Mikovits: (Fauci) directed the cover-up. And in fact, everybody else was paid off, and paid off big time, millions of dollars in funding from Tony Fauci and … the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. These investigators that committed the fraud, continue to this day to be paid big time by the NIAID.

It’s not clear which fraud and what cover-up Mikovits is talking about exactly. There is no evidence that Fauci was involved in a cover-up or that anyone was paid off with funding from him or his institute. No one has been charged with fraud in relation to Mikovits’s allegations.

Mikovits: It started really when I was 25 years old, and I was part of the team that isolated HIV from the saliva and blood of the patients from France where (virologist Luc) Montagnier had originally isolated the virus. … Fauci holds up the publication of the paper for several months while Robert Gallo writes his own paper and takes all the credit, and of course patents are involved. This delay of the confirmation, you know, literally led to spreading the virus around, you know, killing millions.

At the time of HIV’s discovery, Mikovits was a lab technician in Francis Ruscetti’s lab at NCI and had yet to receive her Ph.D. There is no evidence that she was part of the team that first isolated the virus. Her first published paper, co-authored with Ruscetti, was on HIV and published in May 1986, 2 years after Science published four landmark papers that linked HIV (then called HTLV-III by Gallo’s lab) to AIDS. Ruscetti’s first paper on HIV appeared in August 1985. There is no evidence that Fauci held up either paper or that this led to the death of millions.

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Video Interview: If we activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars that own the vaccines.

Mikovits: And they’ll kill millions, as they already have with their vaccines. There is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any RNA virus that works.

Vaccines have not killed millions; they have saved millions of lives. Many vaccines that work against RNA viruses are on the market, including for influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, rabies, yellow fever, and Ebola.

Video Interview: So, I have to ask you, are you antivaccine?

Mikovits: Oh, absolutely not. In fact vaccine is immune therapy, just like interferon alpha is immune therapy, so I’m not antivaccine. My job is to develop immune therapies. That’s what vaccines are.

In another recent video, Mikovits is wearing a hat that says VAXXED II, which is a sequel to a film that links the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine to autism, a debunked theory. She also repeats several claims made by people who are leading the antivaccine movement. In the PowerPoint presentation she sent to Science, she calls for an “immediate moratorium” on all vaccines. (To be continued)

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Why are they so mad?

“Get mad, then get over it.”

—Colin Powell

By Alex P. Vidal

THE criticism being aggressively unleashed against the embattled ABS-CBN by some people who claim to be “die-hard” supporters of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte increased in the social media immediately after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a “cease and decease” order against the leading national TV and radio network which was compelled to sign off on May 5, 2020 after their 25-year broadcast franchise expired the previous day.

In others, out of the blue, naki sabay (they joined the fray).

Although they based their attacks against the powerful media company on the latter’s failure to secure a renewal of their franchise and corrosively dismissed the angle on violation of press freedom, their motives and aggressiveness were suspect.

We’ve noticed their bad blood against the ABS-CBN didn’t emanate from any personal experience or spat against the giant network.

In other words, their hatred came from nowhere.

Their saber rattling was an afterthought or based on the stimulus of the president’s rage.

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When President Duterte didn’t yet step up his attack against the ABS-CBN early last year, most of these die hard supporters never thought of lashing at the network.

It’s only when Mr. Duterte used profanity and threatened to block ABS-CBN’s renewal of franchise later last year that the die hard supporters also started lambasting the network that employs 11,000 workers nationwide.

Which means that most of them anchored their hatred toward the ABS-CBN on the mood or reaction of the president, not because they had a previous ax to grind against the network. 

Immediately after it became known that Mr. Duterte was terribly mad at the ABS-CBN, some of these die hard supporters discussed and analyzed the network’s supposed litany of “sins” against the law like they were in the trial court, and personally against Duterte, who had been openly protesting that his campaign ads were not aired during the 2016 elections despite making an advance payment.

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The ABS-CBN critics invoked the argument used by Solicitor General Jose Calida—and which most of us already know—that broadcasting networks require a congressional franchise to operate television and radio stations under Philippine law. 

Operating since the mid-1960s, ABS-CBN had last been granted a 25-year franchise extension on March 30, 1995 by virtue of Republic Act No. 7966 (March 30, 1995). 

The franchise expired on May 4, 2020 as upheld by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

The question is, what if President Duterte did not declare an Armageddon against the ABS-CBN?

What if, instead of threatening to block the station’s renewal of franchise, the president extended an olive branch and heaped praises for the largest entertainment and media conglomerate in the country in terms of revenue, operating income, net income, assets, equity, market capitalization, and number of employees for its catchy “In the service of the Pilipino” slogan?

Would those die hard supporters, most of whom have been tagged as “fanatics” and motivated by a canine loyalty to the hard-hitting leader from Davao City, also parrot the same soliloquy?

Your answer is as good as mine.

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I am developing a story that a financial group based in the state of Georgia, which has been facing several lawsuits for allegedly running a pyramid scam, allegedly continues to operate and is “actively” recruiting a lot of gullible Filipino immigrants in San Francisco, California and other parts of the United States.

“The operators of this scam are using the social media to recruit and promise their potential victims a financial windfall and other emoluments,” said a source who refused to be named.

“The sad part is that they are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to lure investors, especially those who have the capacity to invest and those who have received a stimulus from the federal government.”

We will know if these allegations are true.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Stop crying! ABS-CBN isn’t dead

“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”

—Albert Camus

By Alex P. Vidal

I COME neither to bury Caesar nor to praise him. 

In the first place, Caesar, in my humble opinion, isn’t dead yet.

Before we mount a manhunt against the modern Cassius, Brutus, and their murderous subalterns in the senate, and before Mark Antony and Cleopatra form a triumvirate with Octavian, I implore thee to hold your horses and stop crying.

As a long-time media practitioner, I commiserate with the ABS-CBN when it was compelled to sign off starting May 5 midnight in the Philippines in compliance with the “cease and desist” order from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Like many of my colleagues in the mass media today, I also denounce the gung ho approach in dealing a mortal blow against a critical media outfit in an apparent retaliatory act from an onion-skinned and vindictive president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Through his minion and “attack dog”, Jose Calida, whose scandal-ridden stint in the Office of the Solicitor General has practically weighed down whatever gain this administration has scored in the Supreme Court, President Duterte got what he wished: bring down the TV station on its knees.  

But, wait a minute. 

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My revulsion centers most particularly on the issue of press freedom, the cornerstone of democracy and something I hold dear for more than 30 years as a community journalist.  

A closure of any media outlet—small or big newspaper, TV and radio stations, and all the alphabet communication soups—will always leave a bad taste in the mouth for any government locked in a tight disagreement with the mass media and the nature of their work.

I will not cry—literally and figuratively, at least not yet.

By “signing off” didn’t mean the behemoth media station has been cremated or buried in the Bronx’s Hart Island like the #COVID-19 dead.

Signing off is like a temporary hiatus, or merely “putting to rest” the tired and weary faculties; it’s one way of saying “I’ll  take two steps backward today, and take three steps forward tomorrow.”

Like Lazarus, ABS-CBN will certainly bounce back to life; not now, at least, but that’s for SURE. 

Its physical assets won’t be sold in a public auction or crushed by a bulldozer and an excavator like imported cars in the Bureau of Customs.

Mr. Duterte and ass-licker Calida aren’t married to their present positions. They can’t outlive the people’s strong desire to gain access to news and entertainment, and to be aware and updated of what’s going on around them.

In a democratic state, media institutions will always survive any tremor, tsunami, pandemic, war, and man’s hateful fulmination.

Media institutions fight and live; dictators oppress and/but are ousted. Newspapers, broadcast and TV networks stay; despotic rulers perish and are remembered in history in the most irremissible and lurid description.    

“Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

No enemy of press freedom or dictator in history has won a permanent battle against the Fourth Estate.

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No strongman and woman in history has outmuscled the power of ideas.

Some smart alecks have tried but failed to put away the media: Elpidio Quirino (Golden Arinola Scandal), Spiro Agnew (Vietnam War), Ferdinand Marcos (Martial Law), Benito Mussolini (“Fascism and Militant Journalism”), Richard Nixon (Watergate), Woodrow Wilson (“Wilson, That’s All”), Theodore Roosevelt (The Jungle), Bill Clinton (Monica Lewinsky cover-up), Cory Aquino (Soliven-Beltran Libel Case), Erap Estrada (Philippine Daily Inquirer advertisement boycott), Ramon Cua Locsin (Sun.Star Iloilo Libel Cases), Melvin “Dragon” Odicta (Aksyon Radyo Iloilo Raid), to cite only a few controversies vis-à-vis the press.

Thomas Jefferson: “I prefer to have a newspaper without a government than to have a government without a newspaper.”

Napoleon Bonaparte: “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

Alexis de Tocqueville: “Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.”

It has been said that press freedom is the first casualty when a leader who wants to become a dictator runs berserk.

Christopher Dodd had warned that “When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.”

But we aren’t giving up.

By the way, wake me up, when ABS-CBN is back on air—soon!

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)