Cayetano won’t personally testify in House hearing on ABS-CBN’s alleged ‘bias’

MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano will not personally testify on the issue of media giant ABS-CBN’s alleged “political bias,” particularly on the airing of advertisements of candidates in the 2016 national elections.

In an ambush interview with reporters, Cayetano, who served as President Rodrigo Duterte’s runningmate in the 2016 elections, said that he will instead just submit in writing to the House committee on legislative franchise and the committee on good government and public accountablity his position on the matter.

The two committees are jointly handling the hearings on issues hounding ABS-CBN in its bid for a 25-year franchise.

“I’ve thought deeply about testifying today, and siguro if I was not a member of Congress and I was not Speaker ay personal ko pong ilalatag sa Committee today ‘yung pananaw ko na nagkaroon ng bias nung 2016 election, in particular during the placement of ads, ‘yung sa coverage,” Cayetano said.

“However, if I do not hear, I promised the whole Filipino nation that we will have not only transparent and open, but fair hearings. So, I don’t want to sway members of Congress one way or the other,” the lawmaker added.

Cayetano said that he would ask the two committees to provide the management of ABS-CBN a copy of his position and ask them to respond to his comments regarding the issue.

“It will be on record but I would rather it not be adversarial at this moment, dahil maaaring last hearing ngayon, ‘no, pero napakaraming magpalista,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano said that for him personally, media bias happens when a network is leaning towards a particular candidate during an election season. He said that the hearing is not for the media’s criticism of politicians.

“Inuulit ko po ha: lahat po ng pulitiko, sasabihin biased ang media pagka binira niyo, hindi ‘yun ang pinag-uusapan ngayong araw na ‘to, at kung mapag-usapan ‘yun, e kailangan linawin that press freedom and freedom of speech ay isang haligi ng democracy,” Cayetano said.

“Ang pinag-uusapan natin if the media will use public airwaves to choose candidates na susuportahan o tatargetin to be able to achieve certain objectives. But, as I said, these are allegations, so we have to hear all of the sides,” he added.

In November 2019, Cayetano, who served as Duterte’s running-mate in the 2016 elections, also aired his personal issue with ABS-CBN’s alleged unfair air time given to vice presidential candidates during the campaign season.

Monday’s hearing was the 12th hearing conducted by the joint committees on ABS-CBN’s franchise wherein various issues such as the citizenship of the network’s chair emeritus Gabby Lopez, the Lopez family’s reclamation of the network after the EDSA Revolution, the alleged labor violations of the network, and tax-related issues, among others, have previously been discussed.

Asked how he would assess the alleged violations discussed in the hearings, Cayetano said that he does not want to preempt the committees handling the matter.

“We will assess it point-by-point, so I don’t want to pre-empt the committee, dahil alam niyo naman, ‘pag opinion ng Speaker, sasabihin sinunod ng iba o hindi sinunod, ‘no, but I think after 12 hearings, naging malinaw,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano, however, believes that the discussions have been “very exhaustive.”

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