Faces of the News: May 10, 2020

ILLUSTRATION BY RENE ELEVERA

Edgardo Cabarios

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) took the heat this week with its surprise decision to shut down ABS-CBN Corp.’s broadcast operations. NTC Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios tried, but failed, to explain the legal justification for the closure, given that many other companies were allowed to operate despite their expired franchise while Congress deliberated on their renewal application.

In a speech in December last year, President Duterte said the network was definitely “out” of the game, citing how it had failed to air his ads during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The media giant also blamed Solicitor General Jose Calida for the unexpected move, citing documents that purportedly showed him pressuring the NTC to pull the plug on the station. NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba was slammed as well for breaching his promise to Congress in March to allow ABS-CBN to continue operations while bills for its franchise renewal were pending.

Whoever was behind the move, the fact remains that the most affected are the network’s over 11,000 workers, and people in need of crucial information amid a pandemic. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS

Jose Calida

Political observers would probably give the government’s chief defense counsel, Solicitor General Jose Calida, a substantial role in one of ABS-CBN’s “teleserye” for figuring prominently in the network’s unexpected closure. Calida’s first attempt to shut it down in February failed, when the high court denied his quo warranto petition.

Undeterred by the ongoing health crisis, he then threatened with graft charges the National Telecommunications Commission if it did not issue a cease-and-desist order against the station, the network said, citing documents it had obtained.

Pursuing the quo warranto petition also resulted in the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) missing the court-appointed deadline to comment on the appeal by one of the accused in a Marcos ill-gotten wealth case.

Calida has been accused of conflict of interest when his family-owned security firm, Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc., won P150 million worth of government contracts.

In a 2018 media interview, Calida said he quit his post as president and chair of the company a month before being appointed to the OSG. —DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN

Leonor Briones

Education Secretary Leonor Briones took center stage last week when she announced the date classes would open — Aug. 24 — after the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had thrown the fate of the next school year into question.

The announcement laid to rest weeks of speculation that, contrary to law, classes for public school students would be postponed until September or even 2021.

It didn’t answer some of the most pressing questions, however, about what the contours of the next school year might look like.

“This date does not mean that students will attend classes physically because we still have a lockdown in place in several areas,” Briones had said. “It could be virtual or physical if conditions in the area allow for physical classes.”

A reimagined education system in the country could include television or radio, she added.

“The developing, enriching and finding of new ways for children to learn will continue,” Briones said, though she conceded that education, as in life in general, would be dramatically different after COVID-19.

Traditionally, public schools open in June while private schools start their classes either in July or August. —MATTHEW REYSIO-CRUZ

Noli de Castro

Network giant ABS-CBN was ushered off the air last week by longtime TV Patrol anchor and former Vice President Noli de Castro. The network, which failed to secure a renewal of its congressional franchise, signed off on May 5, in compliance with a controversial order from the National Telecommunications Commission.

In words penned by ABS-CBN news chief Ging Reyes, De Castro vowed that the network “will not be silenced, despite this attack on our democracy and press freedom.

In the face of this challenge facing our company and livelihood, we will not turn our backs on you. We, you, are ABS-CBN.”

A sometimes polarizing figure who once faced graft complaints, De Castro is the father of Kat de Castro, who was recently appointed board member of the government channel, PTV-4.

The longtime host and anchor of the news program “Magandang Gabi, Bayan,” was elected senator in 2001. He was Vice President under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In 2017, De Castro got the ire of the National Youth Commission for his disparaging remarks about transgender singer Jake Zyrus, formerly known as Charice, in a TV Patrol episode. —PATRICIA DENISE M. CHIU

Peque Gallaga

“You can never recover from a loss like this. Peque is irreplaceable,” said Lore Reyes, best friend of the late multiawarded filmmaker Peque Gallaga and his codirector in more than 20 films. Gallaga, 76, died on May 7 in Bacolod City from cardiopulmonary arrest, according to his wife, Madie.

Gallaga and Reyes shared directing credits for the second, third and fourth editions of the “Shake, Rattle and Roll” franchise and other movies, the most recent being “Sonata” (2013) and “T’yanak” (2014).

The director also directed “Virgin Forest,” “Scorpio Nights” and “Unfaithful Wife” in the 1980s.

But the classic period drama “Oro, Plata, Mata” was considered to be Gallaga’s most significant contribution to Philippine cinema. The 1982 epic film showed the rural elite’s wealth, status and moral bearings eroded by the conflicts and violence of World War II.

Aside from directing movies, Gallaga had an acting role in Mario O’Hara’s “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos,” and was a production designer in Eddie Romero’s 1976 period dramedy “Ganito Kami Noon … Paano Kayo Ngayon?” and Ishmael Bernal’s gritty “Manila by Night” released in 1980. —MARINEL CRUZ