Press Statement of Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto
on the ABS-CBN death penalty

At a time when we need every media outlet to disseminate life-saving information, we don't shut down the one with the widest reach.

When each and every job must be saved, we don't cause the wholesale unemployment of thousands.

When we need every tax peso collected so we don't take a second mortgage on our children's future, we don't shut down a large taxpayer.

When this nation needs entertainment to fight off the monotony of quarantine, we don't pull the plug on the biggest producer of them all.

When many companies are going under, we don't kill one which does not require government aid to stay afloat.

ABS-CBN does not deserve the death penalty. If it erred, penalize it. Because if corporate misdeed is punishable with extinction, no business will be left standing in this land.

Many politicians, including me many times, have been on the receiving end of unflattering reports from ABS-CBN. But reply is the best response, not closure, because such is the ultimate form of censorship.

Freedom of the press is wasted if solely used to praise. It is not there to airbrush the truth or Photoshop the ugly, but, like a national mirror, is hoisted in front of us so we can see the true reflection of ourselves, wrinkles and all.

A noisy press, all the more the sound from outlets which does not please our ears, is the soundtrack of democracy.