Duterte made the proposal with little over two months left until ABS-CBN’s broadcast rights expires. It is congress that is mandated by the constitution to enact franchise bills pending before it.
If the franchise is not granted, the country’s largest network would have to close down its TV and radio operations by March 20,2020. Duterte has several times in the past threatened to block the franchise renewal of the Kapamilya network after what he claimed it had been unfair to him during the presidential campaign period.
The President has also repeatedly accused ABS-CBN of estafa for supposedly not providing him the airtime he had paid for during the May 2016 presidential elections.The proposed sale of ABS-CBN came on the heels of reports that Duterte’s friend, Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy recently formed the Udenna Communications Media and Entertainment Holdings Corp, which expands his business to media and entertainment sector.