By JANNELA PALADIN and JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
MANILA A year since lawmakers killed the franchise of the biggest television network in the country, a group of Filipino journalists said the Duterte administration cannot wash its hands over what is deemed as an assault on free press and abuse of power.
“Undoubtedly, the killing of the franchise is an order from Malacañang, and blindly undertaken by his cohorts without credible justification and reason,” the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement.
On July 10, NUJP led a protest caravan from the House of Representatives to ABS-CBN to mark the first year since its shutdown that came in the heels of a pandemic, increased attacks against the press, and looming attempts of the Duterte administration to perpetuate itself beyond the 2022 elections.
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Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto
(Pasig Public Information Office / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
The labor group said the action taken up by Sotto should be emulated by other local government units.
“This good decisive deeds of Mayor Vico Sotto in ensuring decent wage and secured jobs for their employees in Pasig City must be duplicated by all local government units,” Christian Lloyd Magsoy, Defend Jobs Philippines spokesperson, said in a statement.
“Mayor Sotto clearly delivered his message across that political patronage system in the bureaucracy must be set aside and the best interests of workers and employees must be on top of every local official’s priority,” he added.