The Philippine government’s chief lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to forfeit the franchise of ABS-CBN Corp., the biggest broadcaster which has drawn President Rodrigo Duterte’s ire, Bloomberg reports.
ABS-CBN’s permit should be revoked for violating the constitutional ban on foreign ownership in media by issuing deposit receipts to foreigners, Solicitor General Jose Calida said in a statement after filing a petition before the top court today.
The petition was filed weeks before ABS-CBN’s congressional franchise expires on March 30.
The media company said Calida’s allegations are without merit, and that the filing of the petition was “ill-timed,” with Congress expected to hold hearings on the franchise.
“ABS-CBN complies with all pertinent laws governing its franchise,” it said in a statement.
The state lawyer also said ABS-CBN went beyond the scope of its franchise when it launched a pay-per-view channel.
“We want to put an end to what we discovered to be highly abusive practices of ABS-CBN benefiting a greedy few,” Calida said.
ABS-CBN fell by 2.9 percent before trading of its shares was halted at noon break today. The Philippines’ benchmark stock index was down by 0.5 percent. The broadcaster has lost more than 60 percent of its market value to 14.3 billion pesos (US$280 million) since Duterte first made his threat to block the franchise renewal in April 2017.
The president has been criticizing ABS-CBN since 2017, accusing the network of bias and supposedly not airing his advertisements when he was campaigning as president.
The president also told owners of the media company in December to sell as its franchise renewal remains uncertain.
Calida’s petition ignores press freedom and encroaches on Congress’ authority over franchises, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement. “This proves without a doubt that this government is hellbent on using all its powers to shut down the broadcast network,” it said.
