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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-7/abs-cbn-case.webp" alt="ABS-CBN public hearings" />
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(ABS-CBN)
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For a long time, the company may have been milking the government through underhanded corporate maneuvers, which it had developed over the long years of benefiting from favored relations with top officials who are swayed by either threat or support.


Initially, the House hearing exposed ABS-CBN, through the use of tax shelters and credits from 2017 to 2019, paid lower than P500 million against its rival GMA Network's P3 billion remittance to government, despite the fact that it has an even wider operation.


In 2018, it even reported an P84 million loss with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.


A subsidiary, The Big Dipper Digital Content & Design Inc., which is registered with the Philippine Export Zone Authority to avail of government perks given to reexport operations, was likely formed for profit transfer.


Big Dipper, based on filings with regulators, gets its business mostly from another affiliate, ABS-CBN Global Hungary Kft, which is based in Budapest.


The Hungarian outfit is a shell company, but had a revenue in 2019 of $54.74 million by overseeing 133 corporate family enterprises and 70 subsidiaries of parent Lopez Inc.


Of course, ABS-CBN denied that the units were formed as tax shelters. Under the legal wizardry called tax avoidance that skilled accountants provide without running against the law, the network giant has not been paying the amounts commensurate to the benefits it gets.


While in most instances achieving the same purpose, tax avoidance is legal, while tax evasion lands one behind bars.



The most recent inquiry exposed another ruse, which was the use of blocktime operations for ABS-CBN to get around the absence of a franchise through the purchase of broadcast time from another outfit.



Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba of the National Telecommunications Commission revealed that an agreement between ABS-CBN and Amcara Broadcasting Network allowed the airing of programs of the firm through TV Plus digital box receivers before the NTC had issued a cease and desist order on 30 June.


TV Plus has been subsequently ordered to pull the plug under an alias cease and desist order relative to the loss of a congressional license of ABS-CBN to operate.


Amcara is operating digital transmissions without equipment and permit from the NTC.


The regulator noted that Amcara did not have the capability to provide digital TV operations, since it did not have the license nor the equipment.


Cordoba said NTC investigations indicated the transmitter being used by Amcara is that of ABS-CBN. "A strong signal emanated from the direction of ABS-CBN's tower along Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon City," Cordoba noted.


House members then directed the <a href="https://kahimyang.com/articles/3022/today-in-philippine-history-november-13-1936-the-national-bureau-of-investigation-was-established" class="news_link">National Bureau of Investigation</a> to look into the subterfuge since it was obviously meant to circumvent the absence of a franchise, which Congress is still deliberating on.


During a previous proceeding, House probers said the network has committed a violation of its franchise by engaging in the usufruct.


While the practice called blocktiming is prevalent in the broadcasting industry, ABS-CBN riding piggyback on another entity has obviously the purpose of resuming its operations without the approval of Congress.


ABS-CBN's use of its employees to coerce the approval of a franchise is also appalling.


The Department of Labor and Employment said its labor inspectors found violations of laws and standards by ABS CBN "and on account of those findings, the company took steps to correct those violations."


The agency added the network's claim that it is a compliant company was "patently misleading" as it revealed the existence of "67 pending cases against the company in the National Labor Relations Commission and the various courts."


Without the yellow regime to lean on to, the Lopez firm, frequently employed for influence peddling, had lost its luster.


ABS-CBN's past has catched up with it.



Sources: 

<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Skeletons spill out, Commentary, The Daily Tribune, <a href="https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2020/07/04/skeletons-spill-out/" class="news_link" title="Source" target="_blank">July 4, 2020</a>
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ABS-CBN may have been milking the government through underhanded maneuvers for a very long time now