THE mothers of two University of the Philippines students abducted in 2006 in Bulacan by the military for being suspected communist rebels yesterday asked the National Telecommunication Commission to strip the media company of Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader pastor Apollo Quiboloy of its license to broadcast on free TV for allegedly spreading fake news.
They said SMNI aired a segment where opposition presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo was accused of being allied with communists.
Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, mothers of enforced disappearance victims Shirley Cadapan and Karen Empeño, and Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay filed a complaint before the NTC against Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) for violating the provisions of its franchise.
The complainants asked the NTC for the issuance of a cease and desist order “as provisional relief against SMNI and/or Suwara Sug Media Corporation to prevent the latter from airing and/or broadcasting the segments or claims and/or other segments or claims herein described herein or analogous and related thereto during the pendency of this complaint.”
The complainants want the revocation of SMNI’s certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) of SMNI to prevent the propagation of red-tagging, false news, and misinformation which leads to violations of human rights, citing an SMNI interview with the retired army general Jovito Palparan who was convicted of kidnapping the two students in 2018.
The complainants said that on March 30, 2022, SMNI broadcast an interview of Palparan by Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, who is the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson for sectoral concerns.
In the interview, they said Palparan and Badoy claimed that Robredo is allied with the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Sometime in April 2022, they said, SMNI aired a news segment claiming Robredo is allied with the CPP, NPA, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
“Considering the unfortunate plight which our daughters were subjected to and/or despite Palparan’s incarceration, SMNI still aired the interview with the latter based on nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations and/or red-tagging,” the mother said.
The complainants said SMNI “abused its franchise and/or authority or certificate of public convenience and necessity” by airing the interview with Palparan despite the baseless accusations and red-tagging of the latter.”
