Family Business

                                          (photo: Rappler)

Lumon kibali ta? ABS-CBN is the brainchild of the Lopez brothers from the sugar-producing province of Iloilo. According to Rappler, the industrialist Eugenio "Eñing" Lopez Sr and his politician brother, former vice president Fernando Lopez, founded Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN) in 1956 primarily for radio broadcasting. They acquired and merged CBN with Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) in 1967.

The Lopezes control the publicly listed media behemoth through a 56.6% stake via Lopez Holdings Corporation, which in turn is owned 52% by privately held Lopez Incorporated. Eugenio "Gabby" Lopez III, the son of Geny Lopez, turned over the reins of ABS-CBN to his cousin, 46-year-old Carlo Katigbak, who is now president and chief executive officer. Gabby remains chairman (Shnabel, 2017).

With these facts, we can directly see that it is a family business. We cannot be considered as a Kapamilya since we are not related to them by blood or affiliation. We are consumers of the products that they produce: news, entertainment and the like.

The purpose of public media is to provide programs and services that inform, educate, enlighten and enrich the public and help inform civil discourse essential to the society. This is the basic role of TV stations in the Philippines. But the most popular among Filipino viewers are the teleseryes, the entertainment side of the broadcast network.

Our easy ability to grasp perspectives other than our own is also what makes it so easy for us to enter into an imaginative situation such as a story. And we really do enter into stories. As developmental psychologist Paul Harris has pointed out, the imitative capacities of our minds enable us to almost completely occupy a fictional position, so that both our thoughts and feelings begin to be shaped more by the fiction than by our real-life situation. We feel that we are there, in the story, an experience that psychologist Melanie Green and her colleagues call "narrative transport."

This is the foundation why the ABS-CBN teleseryes are connected to the people. The writers have researched well what tickles the mind of the audience. With the popular stars they also invested upon though a lot of promotion, more people got hooked and advertisers queue to be included on the air times of these series. The viewers were hooked since most of them can “relate” to the characters.

With this status, the shows became good business.

The Philippine Star reported on May 5, 2020: the National Telecommunications Commission ordered the broadcast giant, ABS-CBN to “cease and desist” operations after Republic Act No. 7966, which granted the network a 25-year license to operate, expired last May 4, 2020.

Emotions erupted as the anchors of TV Patrol bid goodbye to the “kapamilya”. A lot posted their outbursts on social media and anger started to escalate. People wanted to find someone or something to blame. Big stars from the network started posting their anguish on different platforms. Some viewers were recorded smashing their TVs since for them, they are of no use.

Their narrative transport was cut; people who “can relate to the characters” went berserk. The millions gathered from advertisers is threatened. Big stars got afraid they won’t have their jobs to maintain their lifestyles. With this, they called-out for the “kapamilya” to support their woes.

Then, there is the alleged losing of jobs of 11,000 employees.

Basically, the problem started with a technical aspect. It’s true that the president was vocal enough with his dislike to the network since it failed to air his campaign ads which he paid in full. He felt that the network is biased. Some of the executives apologized for this but the president was consistent with his stand.

ABS-CBN President and CEO Carlo L. Katigbak admitted during a Senate panel inquiry on the company’s compliance with its franchise that the media firm failed to air about P7 million in local ads ordered by then presidential candidate Duterte. Katigbak clarified that all of Duterte's national political ads in the 2016 elections were aired but some of his local ads worth P7 million could not be accommodated due to a first-come, first served policy (Merez, 2020).

Some political analysts considered this as the reason why the allies of the president in Congress delayed the hearing to grant a franchise for the station.

Whatever reason is there, the company must not allow the Filipino to feel responsible to the alleged 11,000 employees’ impending joblessness. Technical aspects must be looked upon by the legal team. In fact, Atty. Salvador Panelo mentioned that the president is not the enemy or the government itself. The rule of law is the one taking action.

And we as people must understand that if Liberty condensed milk will be phased out from the stores, we cannot blame Alaska for anything. The owner of the former must face the consequences and won’t allow the people to be involved in their technical battles. We are just consumers. We do not own the company. We are not members of their family.

Let us focus on nurturing our own families. Let ABS-CBN work out for their family business. The well-loved characters might return soon.