MANILA — Congressional leaders joined the chorus of public condemnation of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for shutting down the leading broadcast network in the Philippines amid the coronavirus pandemic and despite a pending application for a new franchise.

But much of the blame came back to haunt the House of Representatives, particularly Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, for sitting on the application of ABS-CBN until the franchise expired last May 4.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the NTC should not be made the “scapegoat for the patent failure” of the chamber’s leadership to act on the network’s bid for a fresh 25-year franchise.

In February, Cayetano insisted that franchise renewal bills, hanging in the lower house since the Benigno Aquino administration, were “not urgent,” while citing his personal issues against the network’s news coverage.

• Speaker Cayetano: ABS-CBN franchise bills 'not that urgent'

In the meantime, a House committee wrote the NTC “enjoining” it to grant a provisional authority to ensure that ABS-CBN would not be closed down after May 4.

NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova agreed to issue the document during the chamber’s lone hearing on the franchise renewal bills on March 10, a jampacked gathering spent largely debating on ground rules.

CHARADE

But under pressure from Solicitor General Jose Calida, who earlier petitioned the Supreme Court to pull the plug on ABS-CBN, the NTC issued a cease-and-desist order instead.

• Calida warns NTC against issuing provisional authority to ABS-CBN, affiliates

“It appears that Speaker Cayetano and Commissioner Cordova were playing charades,” Lagman said in a statement.

Journalist Vergel Santos said majority of the congressmen were “sycophantic” toward President Rodrigo Duterte, who had repeatedly promised to close down the broadcast network.

“Even before this happened, I'd been trying to get it to ABS-CBN's head that there was no way that all this softened position toward the regime would help,” said Santos, former chairman of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.

“The softer you are toward this regime, the more it tramples you. That's how it is,” he added, noting that the company was “played.”

DON’T BLAME DUTERTE

Observers see multiple political players, working openly or behind the scenes, to make sure ABS-CBN would be taken off the air.

The shutdown also raised suspicions that the administration intended to reallocate ABS-CBN’s broadcast frequencies to businessmen of its choice.

Malacañang on Wednesday moved to distance Duterte from the widely condemned NTC order, with his spokesman, Harry Roque, insisting he was “neutral” over ABS-CBN’s application.

“Congress should have done something about it but it did not. So, why blame the president for the mistake or fault or omission of Congress?” Salvador Panelo, the chief presidential legal counsel, told ABS-CBN News.

Duterte had repeatedly attacked the broadcast network, citing an unaired political ad in the 2016 campaign which he described as “swindling.”

BENT TOO SOON?

In a Senate hearing last February, company president Carlo Katigbak said this represented a local ad that wasn’t aired anymore because it was already close to the election.

Duterte received P4 million in refund, but rejected the remaining P2.6 million, which the company sent later. All of his national ads worth P117 million were aired.

• ABS-CBN chief says all Duterte national pol ads aired

Katigbak’s apology for airing a separate negative ad against Duterte during the campaign “settled“ that issue with the president, said Panelo.

Before that, in December 2019, Duterte had warned that he would “see to it“ that ABS-CBN would be off the air this year.

• TIMELINE: Will ABS-CBN get a new broadcast franchise?

The president got his wish Tuesday evening when the network, bowing down to the NTC order, signed off for the second time since martial law was declared nearly 48 years ago by then President Ferdinand Marcos.

• ABS-CBN shutdown ruling unanimous, unshakable, says NTC

Santos said the network “bent too soon” and should have resisted the shutdown order.

“What I am very disappointed about is that ABS CBN, knowing very well that this is a fight for press freedom, for a bedrock principle of democracy, is surrendering so easily by closing, by not waiting to be forced to close by police or armed troops,” he said.

“This is how it is. ABS CBN should show us, the people, of which it is a surrogate, that it is fighting for the freedom that they exercise in our behalf."