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Udenna Corp. CEO Dennis Uy. (File photo of CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net)
MANILA, Philippines – Udenna Corp. does not plan to acquire media giant ABS-CBN, Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy, a campaign donor to President Rodrigo Duterte, said Sunday.
In a statement, Uy, who is president and CEO of Udenna, said that entering the broadcast was not part of his company’s corporate direction.
“I have great respect for what ABS-CBN has done and what it continues to do,” Uy said in the Philippines. “I fully recognize what it represents to our fellow Filipinos.”
“We hope that their problems will be resolved as soon as possible.”
ABS-CBN went off the air Tuesday night in compliance with a cease and desist order from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) pending congressional approval of its franchise renewal.
ABS-CBN’s legislative franchise expired on May 4. But before that, lawmakers expected the NTC to issue the network a provisional authority to operate as Congress had not passed any of the bills submitted to extend the media giant’s legislative franchise.
This follows Duterte’s repeated public protests against ABS-CBN. Since taking office in 2016, he has publicly threatened to block ABS-CBN franchise renewal for not issuing a paid ad for the 2016 presidential campaign.
At the end of last year, Duterte even asked ABS-CBN owners to only sell the network if they wanted it to continue.
The proposed sale of ABS-CBN came immediately after the start of Uden’s Udenna Communications Media and Entertainment Holdings Corp, which expands its business to the media and entertainment sector.
/ATM
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