The issue on the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise has turned into an issue about self-expression precisely because of the undoing of the palace itself. Had President Rodrigo Roa Duterte first raised the PDR issue or anything other than his own personal gripe with the mega giant, public impression would have been different. These underhanded tactics employed by the administration and its legislative allies are seen as palace directives and strategies meant precisely to achieve a fiendish objective: force the shutdown of the network because it incurred a personal ire with the President.

This very same thing is now the subject of intense anxiety not just of ABS-CBN owners, but also with others with franchises with government. If they can do it with a corporation that generates billions of revenues every year, what can prevent government from doing the same thing with the others? None. Secretary Pernia is right in expressing his contrary views on this. The fact is, the entire business community is up in arms not because they support ABS-CBN, but because they see now the very same administration becoming a threat to business–foreign and local.

What the palace is also unable to see thru this is the fact that an entire industry is set to go in flames the minute ABS-CBN closes its doors. Advertising, media placement agencies, PR agencies, publishing firms, graphics, artist, hotels, venue providers, and events management agencies– an entire ecosystem called “marketing.” What happens to their contracts with the mega giant? When these agencies go down, they also drag with them several others especially suppliers, traders, etal. IT would take years for these agencies to recover.

Hence, we are talking here not just 11,000 employees— we are talking millions here who depend on the marketing sector for their livelihood. ADMITTEDLY, ABS-CBN 2 gets at least 55% of the market. Many say this huge chunk will just go to other channels. Wrong presumption. There is a reason why marketers allow their budgets with one or two particular channels. And in the absence of reason, their budgets will not necessarily go to a rival network or will not be dispensed widely across the entire media sector.

Meaning, the expected misery of one will not mean, a windfall for another. Let’s be frank–how will GMA7 manage the billions of advertising revenues that ABS-CBN 2 will lose the minute its doors close? The disruption that this will cause in an entire industry is catastrophic.

The entertainment or what I call the “creative sector” is different from workers on manufacturing firms–they see things differently. Whatever the palace says, this impending catastrophe of Mr. Duterte’s doing would impact greatly on this administration and this government for years.

What Mr. Duterte did not see is the fact that Marcos fell from power thru the most creative of means. Those humongous crowds that went to Ninoy’s funeral and burial march, or those who went to Camps Aguinaldo and Crame and also ransacked Malacanan when the Marcos left in a hurry, fearing for their lives, were products of creative propaganda.

Mr. Duterte might have, wittingly or unwittingly, lit a fire that is sure to engulf his own administration in a revolutionary bushfire of unknown consequences.