MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday that local media firm ABS-CBN Corp. still owes the government billions of pesos in unpaid taxes.
Duterte expressed in his sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA) his frustrations with ABS-CBN’s dishonesty by importing its equipment “tax-free” and declaring only four hectares of property when it actually had 40 hectares.
“Kaya talaga ako hindi papayag (That’s why I would not allow them [to have another franchise]. They still owe government billions,” Duterte said.
Despite its failure to show his campaign advertising during the 2016 presidential elections and its assertion that his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, is a drug trafficker, Duterte stated that he does not hold a grudge against ABS-CBN.
He even claimed that he chose to remain silent about ABS-CBN’s actions because he didn’t want to appear “vindictive”.
However, he stated he couldn’t stand ABS-CBN “cheating the government”.
“Wala akong problema sa ABS-CBN (I do not have a problem with ABS-CBN). They got my money. They wanted to return it when the case blew up but they printed all garbage, including my daughter as a drug trafficker. Nilamon ko na lang lahat yun (I swallowed my pride) because I never wanted to appear vindictive but itong ano (this one), they are cheating the government by billions in taxes,” Duterte said.
In earlier remarks, Duterte has said that he will not allow ABS-CBN to recommence broadcasting operations while he is in office until the company pays its tax liabilities to the government.
He’s also criticized ABS-CBN for selling its assets to the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines at a “higher price”. He was alluding to the alleged ABS-CBN loans to DBP that were approved in early 2002.
On Jan. 19, the DBP explained that it did not condone or write off PHP1.6 billion in loans to companies affiliated with the Lopez family that went bad as a result of the lingering Asian financial crisis in 1997.
The Lopez companies received loans from DBP, which sold PHP9.55 billion in non-performing loans (NPLs) and non-performing assets (NPAs) in an auction to two special purpose vehicles, or financial firms that assume banks’ bad loans.
Duterte stated that he would only grant the legislative franchise to a “good” taxpayer.
“And they still want that frequency because iyan ang pinag-aawayan (they are fighting for it). No. I will give it to a Filipino na gustong mag-gawa ng tama and pay (who wants to do good and pay properly),” he said.
Following the NTC’s issuance of a cease-and-desist order, ABS-CBN terminated broadcast operations on May 5, 2020.
