Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez (MANILA BULLETIN)



A congressman who sought to extend the operating franchise of media giant ABS-CBN is calling on the network owners to absorb Teleradyo's staff in their surviving broadcast-related businesses. Cagayan de Oro City 2nd district Rep. Rufus Rodriguez made this appeal after ABS-CBN Chief Operating Officer (COO) Karlo Katigbak bared that Teleradyo, the forerunner of radio station DZMM, would stop airing by June 30, 2023 to further reduce the network’s operating losses. “We are anxious about the continued employment of the radio station staff, many of whom have worked for ABS-CBN for many years. We are as well concerned about the welfare of their families,” Rodriguez said, He said the network’s owners should find ways to accommodate the Teleradyo staff in cable television channel ANC and their residual businesses. “They could also be absorbed in their joint ventures with other media companies,” added the lawyer-congressman. DZMM, and ABS-CBN’s television channels, had to close shop three years ago during the Duterte administration after the House of Representatives, through the Committee on Legislative Franchises, rejected moves to renew the network’s expired franchise. However, ABS-CBN continues to operate ANC, a cable television channel, which Katigbak said would remain on air as it is viable. On May 6, 2020, the Mindanao lawmaker filed House Bill (HB) No. 6694, which proposed to grant ABS-CBN a new 25-year franchise. Rodriguez said he continues to believe that Congress should have renewed the network's franchise. “The expiration of the network’s broadcasting privilege had left a void in the information dissemination and public service space, which we continue to feel up to now,” he said.