STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE ABS-CBN EMPLOYEES LABOR UNION

In these uncertain times, when the forces of darkness are again moving to force their evil motives upon us, the hour comes when we have to firmly stand up and fight the creeping corruption that endangers our access to the Light. 

We, members of the Pilipino Society and Development Advocates Commuter-Consumer, a SEC registered non-governmental organization express our solidarity with the cause being championed by the ABS-CBN Employees Labor Union. 

These union members are our members as well. Like the countless millions of Filipino commuters and consumers who walk our streets, employees of the biggest media company in our country, are themselves part of the ordinary mass of people eking out a living out of their meager salaries. 

It is important for the Nation to allow ABS-CBN to conduct itself as a pillar of free expression. We staunchly believe that this administration does not have enough reason to deny ABS-CBN’s privilege of having a franchise as accorded by our 1987 Constitution. 

We ask—what motivated President Duterte’s lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida to present his litany of allegations when he knows very well that the franchise is set to expire soon? Why now, when the government had many years to present its case against ABS-CBN before the proper venues? The timing is suspicious. 

These acts and recent speeches and pronouncements of the President himself, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, betray the true motive behind these attacks against the country’s biggest media network. 

ABS-CBN 2 is one of the country’s biggest employers. The jobs the company creates for its more than 11,000 employees provide these people and their families, food on the table, monies for tuition fees of their loved ones and medical expenses of their sick family members. 

ABS-CBN 2 is also one of the nation’s biggest taxpayers. Thru ABS-CBN Foundation and BANTAY BATA, the needs of thousands of abandoned children and sick Filipinos are being attended to. During disasters, ABS-CBN is there not just to inform us of what’s happening—their ABS-CBN foundation trucks stand ready to assist government agencies and the Philippine National Red Cross. 

For more than sixty years, ABS-CBN has been doing its job of being in the service of the Filipino People in the most excellent way possible. 

Rest assured that our thousands of members throughout the country will be behind these employees every single way and will support them in the path that they will take to defend their jobs.