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The network's strategy is to equate both the expiration of the network's franchise and its non-renewal to an abridgment of press freedom (even if there is no correlation), and tricking people who don't know any better into getting angry at the government for supposedly abridging constitutional freedoms.


It includes highlighting that 11,000 network employees will lose their jobs if ABS-CBN does not get a new franchise (even if tax records indicate it has only 4,322 workers), in order to trigger an emotional outburst from people saddened by the idea of mass unemployment.

The scheme also requires making it appear that the off-air status of ABS-CBN was bad timing amid the COVID-19 health crisis (even if the expiration of the network's franchise has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic) because people living through a health crisis are bound to believe anything, even falsehood, if peddled to them convincingly.


The strategy also involves publicizing ABS-CBN's relief operations and charitable work to give the network the image of a do-gooder philanthropist being bullied like an underdog.


Thus, video footage of the network's relief operations is regularly featured on the network's cable television facility and other available platforms. Testimonials from individuals who were once beneficiaries of the network's much-touted commercialized type of corporate "kindness" are conveniently included.


The message remains — if ABS-CBN does not get a new franchise, it will use the press freedom and unemployment bogeymen against the government, through the manipulation of public opinion.


Long before the House of Representatives began its marathon hearings on the network's application for a new legislative franchise last month, the ABS-CBN disinformation campaign was already being carried out through its Sky Cable Television facility and related online media platforms.


The strategy the network used in the hearings held in the House was different. There, ABS-CBN officials put up a facade of humility, while their allies in the House, like the left-leaning politician Edcel Lagman (who practically did the work of the network's lawyers) and the unparliamentary Joselito Atienza (whose son is employed in ABS-CBN) did the fighting for the network.


At the hearing held on July 6, Ging Reyes, head of ABS-CBN news and public affairs, was among those asked if the network will equate the denial of the network's franchise application to an abridgment of press freedom. After some hesitation, Reyes suggested a negative answer.


Another network official present added that the network will respect the decision of the House.


On July 10 2020, after the House Committee on Legislative Franchises finally voted against ABS-CBN's franchise application, Reyes announced on the network's supposedly shuttered DZMM radio facility:

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 "If this is an attempt to curtail press freedom, I believe they won't succeed. We won't give up, even though we will be limited in many ways."

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Thereafter, ABS-CBN political allies, as well as personalities with business ties, current and past, to the broadcast giant, started what is now a continuing disinformation campaign to muster public opinion against the vote taken by the House.


Despite her poor command of spoken English, Vice President Leni Robredo managed to call on the electorate to remember the 70 members of the House who voted to deny ABS-CBN's franchise application, and insinuated that voters should not elect the 70 if they run in the May 2022 general elections.


Robredo's moribund Liberal Party (which lost miserably in last year's midterm elections) accused the 70 representatives of repressing press freedom, and threatened to expose them to the people through its practically inexistent party chapters nationwide.


Although network officials already admitted to the House that the franchise issue does not involve press freedom, ABS-CBN continues to encourage its allies and supporters to cry otherwise, and disseminates those untruths through its ongoing disinformation campaign.





Sources:

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Expect anti-gov't disinformation offensive from ABS-CBN, July 18, 2020, <a href="https://tribune.net.ph" class="news_link" title="Source" target="_blank">Concept News Central, The Daily Tribune</a>
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Expect a more vicious, hate-filled, all out anti-government disinformation campaign from ABS-CBN