ABS-CBN wields an immense power.

It is the power to influence public

opinion. It can shape people’s public consciousness. It can popularize
an unpopular. It can dictate the narrative of events as they unfold.

If it chooses to make mainstream such inanities as Vice Ganda songs

and shows, it can do so. If it chooses to air intellectually stimulating
programs, it can do so.

If ABS-CBN is powerful, so is the President. And I don’t mean the

President’s constitutional authorities. I mean the power of the office to
rally the people to a particular cause.

The presidency is a bully pulpit.

Some call it harassment. Others see it as the strongman’s flexing of

political muscle.

But ABS-CBN’s love-hate relationship is really a power struggle.

While ABS-CBN capitalizes on its wide reach and train the spotlight on
a certain narrative, the President uses the office to tell an alternative
narrative. More of President’s recapturing the narrative.

ABS-CBN’s did not start when Duterte assumed office. It started further
back to the time of Aquino.

Started with PNoy. SAF 44. Kris asked not to air. ABS-CBN denied.

PNoy asked not to accept Kabayan, being a former VP of GMA. ABS-

CBN denied, and accepted Kabayan.

PNoy’s marching order to Congress: do not renew franchise.

And so when it applied for a renewal in 2014―denied.

Thinking that it could get a better terms under a Roxas presidency

since Korina Sanchez is in its fold, it went all-out against other
contenders.

It signed up on a demolition job against Roxas’s fellow candidates:

Grace Poe, Binay, and Duterte.

Duterte’s rise posed the most threat to the Roxas campaign. And so
the most bile of biles were heaped upon Duterte: a campaign ad
against Duterte.

That irked Duterte.

Where the media, under the pretext of holding the government to

account, reported only news about corruption and official misdeeds,
the President wanted the citizens to hear something beyond.

And so he capitalized his office as a bully pulpit to rally the nation to an

alternative narrative.
When ABS-CBN decided to engage the President, it must have realized
that he is no punching bag who can neither parry nor counter-punch. It
must have realized that, like the media behemoth that it is, the
President wields immense power ready for his disposal. Finally, it must
have realized how frightening it is, considering that the power-wielder
enjoys an overwhelming mandate from the Filipinos.

Is it bad for democracy when a President retaliates against the

perceived bias of the media? Perhaps.

But media cannot play as though it’s a hapless victim.

There’s no imbalance of power. In fact, with the ubiquity of media in

our daily lives, we relate more to media personalities than to the
President.