Palace on Lagman’s statement vs Duterte’s EJK of press freedom: Nonsense

January 3, 2020

Malacanang called on Friday "nonsense" the accusation by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman against President Rodrigo Duterte for "imposing an extrajudicial killing of the freedom of the press" amid his opposition to renew the franchise of television network ABS-CBN.

"We will not respond to another nonsense from him (Lagman)," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a text message to reporters.

Lagman, in a statement on Thursday, said Duterte should instead institute with the proper judicial or administrative forum his personal grievances against the giant television station than "imposing an extrajudicial killing" of the press freedom.

Since he assumed the presidency in 2016, Duterte has threatened to block the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise, which will end in March this year.

He has accused ABS-CBN of "swindling" for accepting payment from his campaign advertisement during the 2016 presidential elections and yet the TV station did not air it.

According to Lagman, Duterte's repeated threat to block the renewal of the Lopez-owned ABS-CBN TV network was "ominously reminiscent of the unceremonious closure nationwide of 392 media outlets in 1972 at the outset of Martial Law, including ABS-CBN’s predecessor, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation."

"Those issues have been bled dry by rambunctious critics like him, and have been responded to before. We will not repeat ourselves," Panelo said.

"We will not accommodate him just to make him earn media mileage," added Panelo,  the chief presidential legal counsel. 

Duterte, in a recent speech, even advised ABS-CBN owners to just sell the company. Celerina Monte/DMS