IBC-13 employees urge Aquino to privatize network

MANILA, Philippines—Employees of the television network Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. (IBC-13) have asked the government to quickly replace the sequestered company’s board members, who have allegedly been emptying the company’s coffers.

In a joint letter to the Malacañang, the IBC Employees Union (IBC-EU) and IBC Supervisors Directors Union (SDU) asked President Benigno Aquino III to prioritize the privatization of IBC 13 to ensure that the company is managed professionally.

The IBC-13 employees claimed that among the many issues plaguing the company are frequent meetings of the board of directors despite its hold-over capacity.

“Certain members of the hold-over IBC Board of Directors, at the instigation of President Ad Interim Juanito de Asis, have been holding almost weekly meetings since 5 July 2010. Each board member receives a per diem of P12,000 per meeting,” the IBC employees said in the letter.

Previously, regular board meetings were scheduled only once a month unless there were urgent issues to be addressed.

The group also questioned the board’s move to scuttle a joint-venture agreement on a piece of property within the network’s compound entered into by the previous IBC Management with R-II/Primestate Ventures, led by local businessman Reghis Romero II.

The proceeds of this scrapped deal, the group said, were supposed to be allocated entirely for the payment of unpaid benefits due to employees amounting to some P160 million.

The group said it was decades of this kind of mismanagement that has left IBC-13 financially crippled.

“Right now, employee’s salaries are hardly paid on time on top of the unpaid benefits and non-remittances to government agencies,” the joint letter said.

“The employees’ desire for privatization of the network appears to be the best option,” the group said.

To make the station more attractive to possible buyers, the group said, the government should subsidize the company’s budget for operations and for the upgrading of facilities.

The group also asked the new administration to make sure that once the station is privatized, the acquiring company should be required to include a budget for employees’ separation and retirement benefits.

Channel 13 was established in 1959 as the Inter–Island Broadcasting Corp. by the Soriano family. The Benedicto Group of Companies acquired the company in 1975 and renamed it IBC.

When Martial Law was declared in 1972, all broadcast networks were closed except for Channels 9 and 13. In 1976, IBC 13 became one of the country’s most viewed TV networks, with full-length local and foreign films aired on primetime.

After the EDSA revolution in 1986, all stocks and assets of IBC 13 were sequestered by the government through the Presidential Commission on Good Government. A board of administrators was created to run the network. It was at this point that the network began to decline in terms of ratings and revenues.

The government has tried several times to privatize the company, but failed due to various reasons. –Paolo Montecillo, Philippine Daily Inquirer