No ‘power play’ in probe of SMNI, says Rep. Johnny Pimentel

Rep. Johnny T. Pimentel (Photo from the Facebook page of the House of Representatives)

MANILA, Philippines — There’s no “power play” involved in the House Committee on Legislative Franchises probe of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) for its alleged spreading of false information and red-tagging,  Surigao del Sur 2nd District Rep. Johnny Pimentel said.

“What we are protecting here is the public. As I’ve said, responsibility to the public is what is stated in Section 4 [of the SMNI franchise]. And we can see that what SMNI has been doing it wrong. As they said, it has been making many accusations that are not true,” Pimentel said, speaking partly in Filipino.

SMNI is under probe after a host of an SMNI program, “Laban Kasama Ang Bayan,” said Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez spent P1.8 billion for travel expenses alone. The House Secretary General Reginald Velasco denied the claim in a hearing of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises, saying that the total travel cost for the entire House was only P39.60 million.

‘Section 4’

The “Section 4” that Pimentel was referring to is a provision in the legislative franchise given to Swara Sug Media Corp. — the legal name of SMNI — as contained under Republic Act No. 11422.

Under Section 4, SMNI is mandated to “provide at all times sound and balanced programming; promote public participation; assist in the functions of public information and education; conform to the ethics of honest enterprise” and refrain from using its stations for the “dissemination of deliberately false information or willful misrepresentation, to the detriment of the public interest; or to incite, encourage, or assist in subversive or treasonable acts.”

Pimentel mentioned during the hearing on Wednesday that SMNI has shown a pattern of harassing individuals using false information.

He mentioned some of the controversial incidents— among them the case filed by relatives of missing University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan and a case involving broadcaster Atom Araullo and his mother, activist Carol Araullo.

The Araullos were linked by SMNI to the communist armed movement.

Pimentel also mentioned SMNI hosts’ attacks against former Vice President Leni Robredo, prompting him to ask former Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, now a “Laban Kasama Ang Bayan” co-host, if there was sufficient evidence to red-tag Robredo.

Badoy, who was later cited for contempt, was ordered to provide documents proving the claim of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Aggression against Robredo.

Badoy’s statement didn’t match data

Pimentel clarified that Badoy was cited for contempt not on a whim but her inconsistent answers to questions about SMNI’s advertisers and revenues.

Badoy said that her program did not have a lot of advertisers, but lawmakers pointed out that their financial statements show millions of pesos worth of advertising income.

“Ms. Badoy said that there were no advertisers for their program ‘Laban Kasama Ang Bayan.’  But in the financial statement they submitted through the years, there is an income worth millions of pesos. So that does not add up. That is why Ms. Badoy was cited for contempt,” Pimentel said.

“The data didn’t match her claim that there was no income, no advertisers. But in the financial statement submitted to Congress, there was an annual income. In fact, there was an income of P 12 million.”

Badoy’s fellow host, self-proclaimed rebel surrenderee Jeffrey Celiz, was also cited for contempt after he did not reveal who gave him the wrong information on the House speaker’s travel expenses.

The wrong claim prompted Quezon 2nd District Rep. David Suarez to urge the House to let the Committee on Legislative Franchises exercise its oversight function and probe SMNI.

Also in the previous hearing, Celiz apologized to the House and Romualdez for airing an unverified figure, adding that it was given to him by a source from the Senate.