By the NUJP National Directorate
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines stands in solidarity with fellow media workers who have been affected by layoffs at ABS-CBN Corp.
According to a report by business news website InsiderPH, the layoffs will affect around 100 media workers across the company, which had already been forced to cut thousands of jobs since a House panel’s denial of its application for a new franchise in 2020.
Job cuts in media, especially approaching an election year, impair discourse, the free flow of information, and the public’s right to know as fewer media workers have to take on more tasks. They also mean a bigger risk that issues, particularly those outside Metro Manila, may go underreported or unreported.
But media outfits are no ordinary business ventures because information is a public good.
While seeking viability and survival is understandable, big media owners all too often prioritize profits, with employees bearing the brunt of, and being the last to know about, measures to reduce losses.
Ironically, these measures might even be seen by some as a welcome development as these can potentially maximize profits, especially with an election year coming, for media owners and shareholders but to the detriment of that public good.
In a more immediate sense, layoffs also mean uncertainty for colleagues affected by retrenchment, especially so close to the holiday season and at a time when many Filipinos are struggling with the high prices of basic necessities.
We note the company’s commitment, quoted in InsiderPH, to “[provide] those affected with full benefits and support” and will monitor the layoff proceedings to help ensure that management delivers on that promise.
The lack of transparency, however, is at the very least unfair to all our Kapamilya colleagues, retrenched or not. As has happened in similar job cuts across the industry, colleagues had little warning about management decisions that potentially affect their lives, their livelihoods and their mental health.
Although they are on the company’s payroll, media workers create value for the corporation and, at the very least, deserve more open communications and consultations about developments that could change the trajectories of their careers..
NUJP will be reaching out to our members and to colleagues in the company for consultations, peer support and mental health services, as well as to offer assistance in seeking employment opportunities for those affected.
Press freedom advocates, including NUJP, had long warned of the long-term consequences of the ABS-CBN shutdown, which was initiated out of a political vendetta, helped along by a House of Representatives that was intent on killing the franchise even while it held hearings on the network’s fate.
Although ABS-CBN Corp. acknowledges changes in the advertising landscape and shifts in audience preferences and behavior as factors that led to the layoffs, it cannot be denied that the franchise denial and its impact on the company had been looming over the network since 2020.
We encourage fellow media workers to reach out to colleagues at ABS-CBN Corp. and offer emotional and professional support. We also call on the public to help support local media by watching, reading, listening to and sharing our stories and reports.
NUJP also calls on fellow media workers and on the public to remember how and where this series of job cuts started, and to never forget what they took from us. #
