Partylist Rep and Senatorial aspirant Rodante Marcoleta came to the defense of Kapamilya host Toni Gonzaga after drawing flak on social media.
Toni was a hot topic on social media on Tuesday, February 8. She landed as one of the trending topics on Twitter Philippines following her controversial hosting job at the Marcos Jr-Duterte-Carpio proclamation rally in the Philippines Arena.
Netizens were dismayed and disappointed after Toni gleefully introduced Marcoleta as the next Senator of the Philippines, knowing he’s one of the main reasons for the non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise, causing thousands of jobs Kapamilya employees.
Meanwhile, in a speech in their election sortie in Valenzuela City, Marcoleta defends Toni from social media criticisms.
Marcoleta appealed for people’s understanding, saying it was not his fault that the ABS-CBN franchise was not renewed because he was just doing his job and upholding the law.
The congressman maintained that it was ABS-CBN’s fault that their franchise was not renewed because of their violation regarding the sale of the ABS-CBN TV Plus.
However, during the franchise hearings in 2020, several government agencies have testified that ABS-CBN did not violate anything on their franchise.
ABS-CBN continues to prove they did not violate their franchise
Government agencies like BIR, DOJ, SEC, NTC, and even DOLE, whose representatives and resource persons appeared during the hearing, cleared ABS-CBN of any violation alleged against the network.
But while these government agencies cleared the network, 70 Cayetano-led and Duterte allied congress members still voted to reject the ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal application.
And as of the latest updates, the frequencies previously held by the Kapamilya network were already distributed to AMBS of the Villar group and Swara Sug Media Corp. of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, known cronies of Duterte.
