Neil
Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Partylist Representative Eric Yap retracted his previous statement accusing ABS-CBN of bribery.
Yap said on Wednesday that someone who claimed to be an “emissary” of ABS-CBN tried to bribe him with 200 million pesos for him to vote in favor of the network’s new franchise, but he refused.
“Simple lang ang sagot ko, hindi for sale ang prinsipyo at boto ko,” he stated.
[My answer was simple, my vote and principle is not for sale]
He allegedly did not immediately expose the incident to the public because he thinks it would be unfair to the network and he is not sure whether the caller is indeed an emissary of ABS-CBN.
Because of this statement, employees, and supporters of the media giant expressed their dismay with the Congressman.
https://twitter.com/nickvillavecer/status/1281075592297803776?s=20
Eric yap is such a trapo and king of fake news
— christopher chan (@chrstphr_chan) July 9, 2020
Da heck. ANYBODY can just contact anybody and say ANYTHING!
Hindi ko na rin papahabain, but FAKE NEWS is what you did.
Redeem yourself and #VoteYesToABSCBNFranchise https://t.co/RDvo4FcuEj
— Pia Magalona #DefendOurFreedom ⁷ (@piamagalona) July 9, 2020
https://twitter.com/philipbantican/status/1281046460864188417?s=20
How much is ABS-CBN’s market capitalization? PHP 12.27B.
At Eric Yap’s price per cong, how much is the payoff to reach the majority of legislative franchise members? PHP 4.6B.
Will anyone sell a third of their company just to payoff a congressional committee? Probably not. pic.twitter.com/y84CwklWbe
— Terry Ridon (@terryridon) July 9, 2020
https://twitter.com/jellajoise/status/1281043244025966592?s=20
I maybe wrong but I think someone bigger than Congress is behind ABS-CBN's (pre-determined) fate in franchise renewal. Cong. Eric Yap's Php200M bribe claim is fabricated and illogical. #VoteYESforABSCBNFranchise #VoteYesToABSCBNFranchise
— Silhouette Kwarenta (@FrencypeCedie) July 9, 2020
https://twitter.com/MamshieeGab/status/1281105695308345344?s=20
The following day, the Congressman tried to backpedal and said that he did not mention that it was ABS-CBN who tried to bribe him.
“Uulitin ko, hindi ko po sinasabi na galing siya sa ABS-CBN at ako ay naniniwala doon,” Yap clarified.
[I repeat, I’m not saying that it is from ABS-CBN, and I believe that]
“Eto po ay hindi verified. May mga nagpapanggap lang, sa tingin ko po kasi, uso ngayon ‘yung text eh; may nagte-text nanalo ka ng P1 million, ng load pero peke pala,” he added.
[This is not verified. Some are just pretending because, in my view, spam text messages are rampant nowadays; some will text you that you won P1 million, or load, but are actually fake]
Nevertheless, ABS-CBN denied the claims from Yap.
“ABS-CBN did not send an emissary to bribe any lawmaker to vote in favor of our franchise application,” the network stated.
“We believe in the process and we have participated in the process. We answered all issues raised in the past 12 hearings,” it added.
