THE VOTE by 70 members of the House of Representatives led by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to deny ABS-CBN a renewal of its broadcast franchise shows that the House of Representatives is not, to paraphrase the network’s famous marketing logo, “in the service of the Filipino people,” but in the service of self-interest and partisan political ends. Elected to Congress through the democratic process, they have made a mockery of the same process by transforming the franchise hearings into a witch-hunt that exposed nothing illegal in ABS-CBN’s handling of its old franchise while betraying their own nefarious self-seeking interest and that of Rodrigo Duterte, who has repeatedly threatened to close down the network because of perceived slights and petty wrongs. The Lower House is therefore nothing but a rubber stamp of the Ultimate Underworld. The Malevolent 70 who voted to reject the franchise are grovelling agents of His Most Rotten Malevolence residing in Malacañang.
The rejection came after 12 hearings of the House Committee on Legislative Franchise in which agency after executive agency basically said ABS-CBN had done nothing illegal that would merit a denial of its application. Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Zarate in fact concluded that ABS-CBN was able to defend itself against all accusations it violated tax, labor, and foreign ownership laws, as attested “by the government agencies themselves.” Obviously continuing the hearings would expose further to the public that everything had been a vindictive witch-hunt by Duterte and his minions in Congress so that Cayetano forced what he called a “conscience vote” on the application. The conscience vote did the unconscionable: deny ABS-CBN its franchise and shoot down Philippine democracy. The Lower House of the Philippine Congress has lived up to its name: it’s a House of Dishonorable Men and Women. It’s a House of Reprobates.
If conscience is the voice of God, then we know which vile voice the perverted congressmen were heeding. Duterte has lately assumed a neutral position on the franchise, but everyone knows this is mere pose. Since 2016 he has ranted and raged against ABS-CBN and threatened to shut it down. Intolerant of dissent and criticism, he has savagely attacked the free press and independent news media agencies, assuming the despot’s authoritarian ways, much like his idol Ferdinand Marcos, much like Communist China, of which he’s vassal, jester, and all-around sycophant. It is not surprising that he signed the repressive Anti-Terror Law around the time when China was passing a security law against pro-democracy Hong Kong. And it is not surprising that his government has done what Marcos did to ABS-CBN during martial law—shut it down and silence the free press.
Ruthless and reptilian (apologies to reptiles), Duterte has opted to maximize the suffering of his enemies in the free press in the worst possible way he could, letting his lawmakers do his dirty work just to consolidate his power and gag his enemies. And he couldn’t have chosen a better time. The country is in a very sorry state as its leader remains deaf to the pleas of its people. The only success Duterte has accomplished during this national emergency is to intensify the terror and mayhem suffered by Filipinos.
There is reason to believe that Duterte is more evil than we think he is. As the country grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, he has successfully carried out his dark political schemes to enact the Anti-Terror Law which is an indirect declaration of martial law. Without any clear plan on how to solve the pandemic and stem the ever-increasing number of infected people, and despite aggravating it by the shameful blunders and incompetence of his government, the madman in Malacañang’s real priority seems to be destroying the nation faster than the contagion. A virus and plague stalks the nation. And we know its real name.
What should the nation do? Stamp out the virus, extinguish the plague.
