‘Political meddlers apparently did not think that Commissioner Rowena Guanzon would come out openly and strongly to question the delay in the release of the First Division resolution…’
JUST three months before the national elections, the Duterte administration jolted the media industry and the political opposition by awarding frequencies of ABS-CBN to three powerful allies: Manny Villar’s Advance Media Broadcasting Systems, the Cabangon Chuas’ Aliw Broadcasting Company, and Apollo Quiboloy’s Sunshine Media Network. Villar, the richest businessman in the country, got channel 2 and digital channel 16, although he was applying only for a digital channel.
Even if ABS-CBN files a case protesting the frequency takeovers, the courts, as in countless cases favoring the government, can just delay its resolution. One consoling thought is Villar’s company is hiring the still jobless employees thrown out in the streets after the closure of the largest and pioneering broadcast network.
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The senator who reportedly intervened in Bongbong Marcos’ disqualification case before the Comelec must be gnashing his teeth and saying repeatedly: “What shall we do with a problem called Rowena?”
Political meddlers apparently did not think that Commissioner Rowena Guanzon would come out openly and strongly to question the delay in the release of the First Division resolution and to denounce the senator whom she has not yet named.
At an impromptu press con after attending a mass at the Manila Cathedral, she did not mince words, saying: “Sa aming mga kamay nakasalalay ang demokrasya ng Pilipinas.
Kung ganito pala na pwede pakialaman ng mga politiko at makapangyarihang tao ang aming desisyon, bakit mayroon pang Commission on Elections? You might as well just throw it all away! Nag-aapela ako sa mga senadores at mambabatas na sa susunod ay lahat ng aplikante sa Comelec ay siguro dumaan sa Judicial and Bar Council.”
Almost frothing in the mouth, Guanzon blurted that “this is a conspiracy” because she voted for the disqualification of Marcos. She lamented the fact that an ageing, sickly man can be jailed for stealing mangoes while someone powerful as Marcos could get away with non-payment of taxes for years.
Speculation is rife that Marcos would be allowed to run through the machinations of administration politicians and certain Comelec commissioners and will be disqualified if he wins as president by the Supreme Court so his vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte-Carpio, if she is elected, can assume the post as president.
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One the most inspiring figures in today’s Christian evangelism is David Hairabedian, a former drug dealer who stole two jets for the Colombian drug cartel. As his second stolen jet was about to take off from a South Florida airport, some 20 fully armed FBI agents swooped down on them. He was tried and sentenced to 25 years at the Leavenworth Penitentiary in the US.
He had an astonishing conversion experience when Jesus Christ came to visit him in his prison cell. In his preachings and media interviews he would recount how Christ came with a bright cloud healing his sickness. And he was never the same again as he embraced a new transformed life of evangelism and “tremendous miracles.” Hairabedian had put up the Virtual Church Media after he spent 20 years behind bars where he said he became a “captive of Christ.”
