We, members of the Educators\u2019\nForum for Development, express our strong indignation at the shutdown of\nABS-CBN media corporation by the National Telecommunications Commission\u2019s (NTC)\nissuance of a cease and desist order. The broadcasting network has gone\noff-the-air starting May 5th for the first time since Martial Law, and this has\nbrought deep concerns about looming threats to our rights and freedoms as a\nnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are in the middle of the\nCOVID-19 pandemic to which our government can only muster a militaristic\nresponse instead of strengthening our health system and relay incoherent\nreports, and at times, disinformation. This is the worst time indeed to close\ndown one of the channels of mass communication that can deliver real news and\ninformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As educators of social\nstudies, we are deeply troubled by a social context that is becoming\nincreasingly repressive and where power is abused and basic human rights are\nviolated. We shall not allow this social context to shape our pupils into a\nmisinformed and uncritical citizenry. We draw public attention to these\nthreats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One, while the ABS-CBN\nfranchise issue is a legal one, we cannot deny its political implications and\neffects on press freedom. President Duterte has expressed its displeasure with\nthe Lopez-owned network, accusing it of unfair treatment and coverage. But this\nalso speaks of the danger of media companies having to tame their reportage so\nas not to offend the powers-that-be, regardless of the fact that the President\nand his Cabinet are public servants, and therefore expected to be under\ncontinuous public scrutiny and accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two, it sends a chilling\neffect on the rest of Filipino society that if a big broadcasting network can\nbe brought down by the government, then so can smaller media outlets and\norganizations, and even ordinary people airing their grievances and calling out\nabuses of power. Already, we have heard reports of citizens being accosted in\nalleged violation of the Bayanihan Heal as One Act because of their social\nmedia posts criticizing the slow distribution of subsidies, among other\nlockdown-related issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three, it cannot be helped\nthat the issue does not only concern the NTC order, but more so the apparently\nintentional dereliction of duty by lawmakers in promptly settling the franchise\nissue of ABS-CBN. To say \u201cdura lex sed lex<\/em>\u201d (The law is harsh but it is\nthe law.) is unquestioningly accepting what is unfair and allowing indeed the\nstate to weaponize and abuse the law to fit its vested interests. This is a\nclear abrogation of our historic efforts as a people to craft laws that uphold\npeople\u2019s rights and welfare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When schools open this August\n24, we teachers would be ever more challenged to instill values on human\nrights, freedom and democracy in our students when COVID-19 has only brought to\nfore the rottenness of our social system. How then shall we teach\naccountability and leadership? How can we teach our students to be agents of\nchange when the most basic freedom of speech is shut down at every opportunity?\nIt shall be a repressed classroom as well if we allow ourselves to be cowed\ninto this horrible context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We challenge our leaders to\ndecide accordingly as public servants. As one legal expert has noted, public\nopinion still matters in the exercise of our laws and policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But in the end, surviving\nCOVID-19 and its aftermath, we as educators take on the challenge to continue\ngraduating students to be well-informed, scientific, critical, and freedom-loving\nFilipinos, ever in genuine service of the Filipino people. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NETWORKS | EDUCATORS’ FORUM FOR DEVELOPMENT<\/p>\n We are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic to which our government can only muster a militaristic response instead of strengthening our health system and relay incoherent reports, and at times, disinformation.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":9657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048,547,3,961],"tags":[2264,2199,347,2263,2262,197],"class_list":["post-9653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner","category-educators-forum-for-development","category-features","category-statement","tag-abs-cbn-shutdown","tag-covid-19","tag-duterte-administration","tag-freedom-of-information","tag-press-freedom","tag-transformative-education","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-23 22:03:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9653"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9658,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653\/revisions\/9658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}