Many Batangas residents have expressed disappointment on social media over the support of Batangas’ District 2 Rep. Raneo Abu to deny the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. last week.
On the other hand, the netizens, including Alvin Magpantay of Lipa City, said they were proud of Batangas 6th District Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto for taking a stand to support ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal.
A certain Melanie from Bauan, Batangas lamented: “How and where can we get real-time information during times of disasters when one of our sources of information was ABS-CBN?”
“They, including our representative, should have looked after the welfare of the people they serve,” she said.
Viewers and listeners of ABS-CBN and its radio station from Metro Manila were not the only ones who had been affected by the shutdown of the giant media company, she said.
After 13 hearings, a congressional committee, with a vote of 70 members, junked ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal for 25 years.
A resident from Mabini, Batangas, a certain Melvin, said the public was never consulted about ABS-CBN’s closure.
He asked the Batangas lawmaker as to “how did they know that the people would favor the company’s shutdown?”
In his Facebook post, Don Bay Pangilinan said Abu has a lot of explaining to do for his action.
Another netizen, Cecil Clerigo Llamoso, said the lawmaker shouldn't have just ignored the key role of ABS-CBN in delivering the news to the people at the height of Taal Volcano’s eruption.
Meanwhile, Santos-Recto, a House Deputy Speaker, said Monday in an ANC interview she was "prepared" for the possible consequences of her vote for the franchise application of ABS-CBN Corp., which was denied by a 70-11 vote.
The former movie star cited a previous instance where she lostchairmanship of a House committee after voting against the death penalty.