Owners ‘took back’ ABS-CBN from Marcoses, House told

MANILA, Philippines — The Lopez family, original owners of media giant ABS-CBN, took back the network after the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986, a senior official of the company said on Wednesday.

In his online appearance before the joint House committees on legislative franchise and on good government, lawyer Augusto Almeda-Lopez, former ABS-CBN vice chair, refuted insinuations that the network was handed over to the Lopez family by the revolutionary government of then-President Corazon Aquino.

“The Marcos dictatorship took ABS-CBN from us, but it was never returned to us. We had to take it back using our own efforts,” Lopez said at the seventh hearing on ABS-CBN’s application for franchise renewal.

The hearing of the joint committees dwelt on the issues hounding the ownership of the network after it was taken over by the regime of then-President Ferdinand Marcos.

Responding to Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., Lopez said the Lopezes had agreed to enter into an arbitration agreement with the government to make official the network’s return to its owners.

According to Barzaga, the government agreed to pay ABS-CBN some P97.5 million in “nonmonetary items” for the use of its facilities from March 1, 1986 to Nov. 1, 1992.

The amount supposedly represented rentals due to ABS-CBN, computed at P1.2 million per month, which Lopez described as a “token amount’’ given that the government operated its 20 radio stations and five television stations in the provinces.

Arbitration proceedings

Bulacan Rep. Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado, who presided over the hearing, urged ABS-CBN executives to produce copies of the minutes of the arbitration proceedings, supposedly to satisfy the queries of lawmakers who alleged that the network was not made to present proof of ownership of its assets.

In his online appearance, former senator and Marcos Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile also clarified that ABS-CBN was not sequestered by the government, and said that he had ordered the lifting of the sequestration order a day after the Marcos dictatorship fell on Feb. 26, 1986.

“President Marcos closed all broadcast operations to stop any opposition to the declaration of martial law. These were placed under the control of government but the ownership remained with their owners,” he said.

“The [purpose of the takeover] was only to immobilize and control the communication system and the outlets for information,” Enrile added.