Dennis Uy says Udenna Corp. has no plan to acquire ABS-CBN

Udenna Corp. CEO Dennis Uy. (File photo by CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net)

MANILA, Philippines — Udenna Corp. is not planning to acquire embattled media giant ABS-CBN, Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, a campaign donor of President Rodrigo Duterte,  said on Sunday.

In a statement, Uy, who is Udenna chairman and CEO, said that getting into broadcasting was not part of his firm’s corporate direction.

“I have high respect for what ABS-CBN has done and what it continues to do,” Uy said in Filipino. “I completely recognize what it represents for our fellow Filipinos.”

“We are hoping that their issues be resolved soonest,” he added.

ABS-CBN went off the air on Tuesday evening in compliance with a cease-and-desist order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) pending congressional approval of its franchise renewal.

ABS-CBN’s legislative franchise expired on May 4. But before that, lawmakers were expecting NTC to issue the network a provisional authority to operate as Congress had failed to pass any of the bills filed seeking to extend the media giant’s legislative franchise.

This follows Duterte’s repeated public rants against ABS-CBN. Since taking power in 2016, he has publicly threatened to block the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN for not airing a paid 2016 presidential campaign advertisement.

Late last year, Duterte even asked ABS-CBN owners to just sell the network if they would want it to continue.

The proposed sale of ABS-CBN came on the heels of the inception of Uy’s Udenna Communications Media and Entertainment Holdings Corp, which expands his business to the media and entertainment sector.

/atm