Andronico Del Rosario
The 2021 budget hearing at the House of Representatives was supposed to be the chance for the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to present its proposed P1.59-billion budget.
A statement, however, supposedly coming from PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar seems to have struck a nerve with Kapamilya actress Agot Isidro and journalist Lynda Jumilla-Abalos.
Both Isidro and Jumilla-Abalos were referring to Andanar’s answer to a particular question from House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Rep. Eric Yap.
Hahahahahahahahaha
Hahahahahahahahaha
Hahahahahahahahaha https://t.co/RAUIoFRCGm— Agot Isidro (@agot_isidro) September 9, 2020
Out the game? Out Of The Game? OUT OF THE GAME?
I kennat. 🤣 https://t.co/aN91KVj0hn
— Lynda Jumilla-Abalos (@lyndajumilla) September 9, 2020
When asked by Yap about PTV4’s plans after ABS-CBN “went out of the game”, Andanar said the plan was “to at least be able to compete as far as ratings is concerned.” Andanar added that PTV4’s status as a government owned-and-controlled corporation to “make its own money from advertisers.”
“We have put up the Mindanao Media Hub, which is scheduled to be unveiled this October. So as far as Luzon and Mindanao is concerned, we already have two strategic media hubs. We only lack Visayas,” Andanar added.
The PCOO Secretary also said the network has beefed up its news broadcast from morning to evening.
For her part, seasoned journalist Jumilla said the statement about ABS-CBN being “out of the game” did not come from Andanar. Looking back at the Congress feed, the statement came from Rep. Eric Yap, who represents the ACT-CIS partylist and who voted to deny ABS-CBN a franchise.
Yap would later ask Andanar about working conditions within PTV4, including salary issues between tenured employees and recent hires of the government network. He also raised a concern about PTV4 assigning a production assistant with no news managerial experience to lead its news department.
The hearing would later be suspended after ACT-Teachers partylist Rep. France Castro confronted PCOO Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy for red-tagging Makabayan lawmakers.
ABS-CBN far from out
ABS-CBN’s franchise may have been denied, but the Kapamilya Network is very much alive. Its in-house talent agency is working overtime on creating and publishing content for different platforms, namely Kumu and YouTube.
ANC, ABS-CBN’s dedicated news channel, continues its broadcast on cable TV alongside other Kapamilya channels like Jeepney TV and KBO.
ABS-CBN has also somewhat reemerged on Philippine TV screens through the 24-hour Kapamilya Channel, available on cable and satellite TV as well as online through TFC.tv and the iWant TFC app.
