Fact Checks about ABS-CBN

FALSE: Supreme Court affirms ABS-CBN guilty, shuts down network

Rappler.com

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

FALSE: Supreme Court affirms ABS-CBN guilty, shuts down network
There is no guilty ruling from the SC, and it was the NTC that shut down the network
Claim:

The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed that media network ABS-CBN is guilty of multiple charges and has decided to close down the network.

YouTube channel Showbiz Fanaticz uploaded a video on July 10 titled, “BREAKING NEWS: KORTE NANINDIGAN na GUILTY ang ABSCBN sa PATONG PATONG NA KASO!| GOODBYE ABS-CBN NA! (Court affirms ABS-CBN is guilty of multiple charges. It’s goodbye, ABS-CBN now!)

The video lasts for 4 minutes and 51 seconds. It says, “Narito ang full report na inilabas mismo ng GMA News and Public Affairs sa kanilang official website na nagpapatunay na nagkaroon ng final decision ang korte suprema na maipasara na ang ABS-CBN ngayong July 10, 2020.”

(Here’s the full report published by GMA News and Public Affairs on their official website that confirms the Supreme Court has handed down its final decision to shut down ABS-CBN on July 10.)

The video also says that the SC “exclusively” closed down ABS-CBN.

The video was spotted on YouTube by the Rappler team as a related link to a previous video by Showbiz Fanaticz that we also debunked. As of writing, it has had 17,740 views. Showbiz Fanaticz has over 212,000 subscribers on the platform.

Rating: FALSE
The facts:

The SC did not hand down a guilty ruling over ABS-CBN. It was the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that issued a cease and desist order against the network, which effectively shut down its operations after the House of Representatives failed to deliberate on the network’s franchise renewal before it expired on May 4.

Moreover, the GMA News report cited by the video wasn’t referring to the SC, but was about the rejection on July 10 of ABS-CBN’s franchise application by the House panel on legislative franchises. The article of GMA News can be found here.

The only cases pending in the SC that are related to the media network are its petition for temporary restraining order vs the NTC’s cease and desist order, and the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida vs ABS-CBN Convergence. Calida’s quo warranto petition vs ABS-CBN Corporation was already junked on June 23 for being moot because ABS-CBN’s franchise already expired on May 4.

As of July 21, the SC hasn’t deliberated on ABS-CBN’s petition yet. It was initially scheduled on July 13 but was reset to August 4.

ABS-CBN Corporation filed the petition with the SC on May 7. By August 4, the broadcasting network would be closed for 3 months already. (READ: With no franchise, ABS-CBN cuts jobs)

YouTube channel Showbiz Fanaticz earlier uploaded a video containing a false claim that the Supreme Court supposedly junked ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal. Rappler debunked this on July 9. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

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