The Martial Law Years
The Marcos administration was continually attacked in news programs but the late dictator did not take it sitting down. He realized that only absolute control of this medium would stop it.
On September 21, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. It was probably the worst time for Philippine television and the scariest moment on TV. Media were cited as a prime enemy of the administration and the target of Marcos forces.
The first letter of instruction issued by Marcos ordered the take over of all media firms to prevent “communist” propaganda. Troops entered radio and television stations, sealed them, and placed under military control. All media outlets that were critical of the Marcos regime were shut down.
“Within a few hours, the government had wiped out the entire news media of the Philippines, except for [those that are pro-Marcos].” (B-Lent, 179)
GTV Channel 4, the government channel, was taken over by the Office of Press Secretary Francisco Tatad and the National Media Production Center of Gregorio Cendaña.
Shutdown and takeovers
The Filipinos’ first experience of television under martial law began with a blank screen, punctuated only by appearances of President Marcos and Press Secretary Francisco Tatad reading edict after edict. It was a portent of much more chilling realities to come. (Pinoy, 93)
Of the seven Manila-based stations existing in 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos closed all but three; channels 9 and 13 were eventually controlled by [then Ambassador] Roberto Benedicto, and Bob Stewart’s Channel 7 was later allowed to operate with limited three-month permits. (Pinoy, 95)
ABS-CBN was seized from the Lopez family, and Eugenio Lopez Jr., then president of ABS-CBN, was imprisoned.
By the latter part of 1973, Channel 7 was in the red and was forced to sell 70% of the business to a group of investors, who changed the name from RBS to Greater Manila Area (GMA) Radio Television Arts.
Stewart was forced to cede majority control to Gilberto Duavit, a Malacañang official, and RBS reopened under new ownership, with a new format as GMA-7.
When the smoke cleared, the viewer had channels 2, 9, 13, run by Benedicto; Duavit’s 7; and 4, which belonged to the Ministry of Information. (Pinoy, 97)
When DZXL-TV Channel 9 of CBN was sold to Roberto Benedicto, he changed the name from CBN to KBS, Kanlaon Broadcasting System. So when a fire destroyed the KBS television studios in Pasay, Benedicto's people took over the ABS-CBN studios in Bohol Avenue, Quezon City. His employees moved in; and by August 1973, KBS was broadcasting on all ABS-CBN channels. A year later, Salvador “Buddy” Tan, general manager of KBS, reopened Channel 2 as the Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The two Benedicto stations: KBS Channel 9 and BBC Channel 2 aired government propaganda. In 1980, Channels 2, 9 and 13 moved to the newly-built Broadcast City in Diliman, Quezon City. According to Buddy Tan, the move was based on economy of scale. These stations shared everything from security guards to water to studios.
In 1980, Gregorio Cendaña was named Minister of Information. GTV Channel 4 became known as Maharlika Broadcasting System.
Initially, everything that was to be aired on radio and TV had to be reviewed by the Department of Public Information, which set up the rules and regulations. Through other government agencies, policies on ownership, allocation of frequencies, station distribution, and program standards were promulgated. It allowed self-regulation when broadcast owners formed the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas in 1973 and when a presidential decree created the Broadcast Media Council in 1974. (National, 30)
Before martial law, broadcasting in the Philippines was probably the freest from government control in the world. “Freedom of expression was virtually unrestricted, to the extent that no politician or public figure could hope to escape permanently from mass-media revelations.” (B-Lent, 179)
On paper, monopolies were banned. In practice, however, Marcos allowed them to exist for friends and relatives. Broadcast media was so vulnerable to government dictation and control since its existence depended upon the government’s granting them the Certificates of Public Convenience.
The continued existence of the broadcast companies were put to doubt and this made them high-risk borrowers of banks. Thus, managers were unable to upgrade and update their steadily depreciating equipment. Only the more profitable and perhaps those with more access to the powers-that-be were able to import spare parts and state-of-the-art technology. (National, 30)
All is Well?
One TV spectacular after another proclaimed that all was well in the Philippines --- the 1974 Miss Universe Pageant, the 1975 Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier heavy-weight fight, the 1981 visit of Pope John Paul II. (Pinoy, 109)
When Benigno Aquino was assassinated in 1983, it was a small item on television news. During his historic funeral procession, GMA Channel 7 gave ten seconds of airtime for this event. With the assassination of Aquino, the iron grip that the Marcos administration had on television began to slip.
In 1984, Imee Marcos, daughter of Ferdinand Marcos, attempted to takeover GMA Channel 7, just as she did with the Benedictos. However, she was foiled by GMA executives, Menardo Jimenez and Felipe Gozon. Stewart left the Philippines for good as he was utterly disappointed with the Marcos move.
Free Again
On February 24, 1986, MBS Channel 4 went off the air during a live news conference in Malacañang and during an exchange between Marcos and then Chief of Staff General Fabian Ver. The network was eventually taken over by rebel forces and started broadcasting for the Filipino people.
When the time came, it was television that first broke the news to the Filipino nation: It was all over. Freedom was back.
Jake Almeda Lopez, former general manager of ABS-CBN, took over the station and cajoled the MBS engineers to put it back on the air.
Director Johnny Manahan assembled a panel composed of June Keithley, Orly Punzalan, Noel Trinidad, and Subas Herrero, and one by one, political figures trooped to the station to say a few words on cam…. The news took a circuitous route, but it arrived. For visual support, director Mitos Villareal hired a helicopter and took shots of the million-strong crowd at Edsa. (Pinoy, 120)
The military revolt backed by civilians ended the twenty-year reign of dictatorship. It led to the restoration of the democratic institutions in the country, including the television stations that were seized when Martial Law was declared. Truly, “some of the most dramatic events that surrounded Edsa Revolution happened in and around TV studios…” (Pinoy, 123)
After the Edsa Revolution, Eugenio Lopez Jr. returned from exile in the United States.
Comeback stories
On September 14, 1986, amid difficulties with the Presidential Commission on Good Government, which initially refused to return the franchise of Channel 2 to its original owners, and problems of mortgaged equipment, ABS-CBN Channel 2 made a comeback and resumed broadcasting, after fourteen years of forced leave.
In 1988, PTV Channel 4, then MBS, was launched as “The People’s Station.” Today, it is now known as the NBN.
The Edsa Revolution paved the way for the reopening of ABC. On February 21, 1992, ABC Channel 5 reopened with a new multi-million-peso studio complex in Novaliches.
After the historic EDSA revolution, IBC-13 became one of the media houses that were sequestered by the government. Executive Order No. 11 was signed by former President Corazon Aquino and created the Board of Administration that governed the affairs of the Channel. To this date, there had been seven Board of Administrators that changed hands, until the Supreme Court finally ruled on the compromise agreement between the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and Mr. Roberto S. Benedicto, the latter ceding Broadcast City which houses IBC-13 and RPN-9 to the government. Today, IBC-13 operates like all other private corporations with a board of directors of its own. (KBP, 165)
On April 19, 1998, ZOE TV 11 of ZOE Broadcasting Network, Inc., owned by born-again evangelist Eddie Villanueva, was officially launched.
Television in the Philippines had indeed gone a long way. More than fifty years ago, television was just one of the appliances in a Filipino home, today, it is considered as the most pervasive and influential instrument of mass communication in the Philippines.
