In the days prior to Covid-19, the Philippines' House of Representatives registered high trust ratings. In the closing days of 2019 pollster PulseAsia released figures that placed the HOR at 80 percent trust rating and 76 percent approval rating for Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano, a 14 point leap from his previous 62 percent.

But the actuations of two House stalwarts threaten to pull that down, especially in the light of the current hearings of the ABS-CBN franchise renewals: Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of 1-Sagip partylist and Michael Defensor of the AnaKalusugan partylist.

The duo has been on the warpath against ABS-CBN, hosting successive Facebook Live press conferences with the lull in the hearings jointly held by the Franchise and Good Government Committees. In those conferences the duo continued their attacks on ABS-CBN, totally defeating their stated purpose of ferreting out the truth in the issues raised on the station’s franchise and taking on the conflicting roles of accuser, prosecutor and judge all in one.

Prejudging ABS-CBN is an understatement.

To add insult to injury, in the June 25 edition of the presscons Defensor tried to appease news journalists with crocodile tears for ABS-CBN workers who will lose their jobs sans franchise by advocating the station continue with its entertainment programming but killing its news and public affairs.

“Kung ako, kunwari tanggalin muna ang news and public affairs,” Defensor answered a query by journo Patrick Paez. “Not because ma-influence yung committee. Not because we want to curtail press freedom. Pabayaan muna yung shows na non-political.”

“Katulad ngayong, nagrereklamo yung isang kasama ko. O, naka air naman sila. Tinira si ganito. Tinira si ganyan. Or one sided yung palabras ng issues. Talagang yung news and public affairs yung nagiging problem as of now,” continued Defensor. “Kung pwede papayagan na muna yung mga programs para naman yung mga tao, hindi mawalan ng trabaho.”

In the HOR hearings the Marcoleta and Defensor playbook is to posit their version of the truth and insist that other versions, no matter how corroborated and confirmed by other government agencies and authorities, are false.

Marcoleta and Defensor insist that ABS-CBN violated the constitution by allowing Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III to be part owner and manage the station because he was born in the United States, despite being a natural born Filipino because he was born of both Filipino parents in 1953, covered by the 1935 Philippine Constitution. And, in testimonies by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Immigration and legal luminaries, it was highlighted further that there was no question about his Filipino citizenship.

Article XVI, Section 11 of the 1987 Constitution simply states: “the ownership and management of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly-owned and managed by such citizens.”

Marcoleta and Defensor insist that the Philippine Depository Receipts (PDR) issued by ABS-CBN Holdings, backed up in value by its common shares in ABS-CBN Broadcasting and sold as investment instruments to local and foreign investors, are proofs of foreign control and ownership. Their insistent “truth” when in fact the chief regulator of such instruments, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and even the DOJ certify that the deals were regular, legal and above board.

In fact, confronted with the fact that he was among those who authored the franchise of rival broadcaster GMA which had a strikingly similar PDR issuance, Marcoleta denied doing so despite HOR records bearing his name, and diverted attention by calling out Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN reporter and lawyer, as having no “journalistic values.” Of course, Marcoleta equated such lack of values with Navallo’s refusal to accede to the congressman’s wish that the journalist be the one to organize a press conference for him, a totally bizarre if not unethical practice by any journalistic standard.

Marcoleta and Defensor insist still that ABS-CBN got a sweet deal from the Cory government which the two alleged that the Lopez family got the station back gratis et amore after the 1986 revolution. Again, their “truth” versus what is in historical record, like that of former Marcos defense minister and martial law implementer Juan Ponce Enrile testifying that the dictatorship had taken control of all media operations but not ownership of ABS-CBN and its assets and facilities.

Then, of course, there is the property titles still in the name of ABS-CBN despite the martial law takeover, papers and certifications of records from the courts and even the Supreme Court affirming the results of arbitration between the government and the Lopez/ ABS-CBN on the settlement of the claims.

Despite all that Marcoleta and Defensor refuse to accept that as hard evidence and insist on getting copies of the actual transcripts of the arbitration which happened over 30 years ago. These transcripts are supposed to be with the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), the government’s lawyer. Well, I say to Marcoleta and Defensor, good luck with that.

To these two congressmen, the records of Philippine judiciary led by the Supreme Court are not good enough. Testimonies of the former martial law implementer and the former general manager of ABS-CBN, Jake Almeda Lopez, who were there as actual witnesses to history unfolding, are not good enough, documentary evidence such as the original property titles are not good enough, and the testimonies of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, SEC, DOJ are not good enough.

And what of this coming Monday, June 29, 2020, when the Franchise and Good Government committees tackle the other issues brought up by Marcoleta and Defensor? The National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) has repeatedly testified before the HOR and even the Senate that ABS-CBN has had no violations in its history, and that includes its continued operations of its cable services and digital blackbox which the agency says do not require congressional franchises. In fact, they attested that ABS-CBN’s digital blackbox is in compliance of the government’s digital migration policy years ago, a policy that broadcasters Solar complied with a few years back and GMA is only complying with now.

Expected too are the supposed “truths” that Marcoleta and Defensor will insist on with ABS-CBN’s alleged tax evasion when the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has testified that ABS-CBN has been complying and dutifully abiding by its rules on all its tax obligations.

Even the 11,000 workers serving and making their living from ABS-CBN are not spared. Marcoleta and Defensor will insist that the station has only a couple of thousand employees as their truth, despite the fact that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and even its Secretary Silvestre Bello has affirmed that indeed 11,000 workers are deriving their livelihoods from ABS-CBN.

What more will Marcoleta and Defensor pull out of their hats as their claimed “truth”? It’s sure that they will find some other allegations, but instead of following the age old legal adage that “the burden of proof lays on the accuser,” the HOR’s deadly duo has turned the tables around and demand that the accused TV station instead produce proof to disprove their unsubstantiated allegations.

While Defensor and Marcoleta charge that they are victim to public tirades through social media and mainstream news, ABS-CBN has exercised patience and restraint as it complied with the duo’s insistence that the station produce documents such as 25 years of financial statements and BIR filings.

ABS-CBN has done so during this lull in hearings, producing and submitting to the committees’ secretariat 5,300 unique pages of documents. 2,000 of these pages are the Tax records while the 3,300 are other documents.

The committee secretariats are overwhelmed, because the whim of Marcoleta and Defensor has stuck them with the minimum requirement – with ABS-CBN – of reproducing, collating and organizing 25 sets of these 5,300 pages of records.

Will Marcoleta and Defensor even read through these? Or will they just end up in the dustbin and refused as fact because they don’t fit the Marcoleta and Defensor playbook, just like the testimonies of all the government agencies, courts, officials, experts and authorities?

And all those don’t even consider the fact that none of the issues raised are relevant to the grant and use of radio frequencies, which is the subject of the congressional franchise. These frequencies are indeed owned by the state – more specifically of the Filipino people – and the grant of their use is judged on how efficiently these are maximized to the benefit of the people. ABS-CBN’s use of the frequencies in entertainment, news and public affairs, information dissemination to the farthest reaches of the country and now of the world should be enough proof of franchise compliance.

Yet Marcoleta and Defensor choose to insist on judgment based on issues that are competently resolved by other government agencies and authorities.

And what of the people’s trust on the House of Representatives? Will Marcoleta’s and Defensor’s antics tarnish the overall image of 300 plus representatives and trigger a downward spiral of the people’s trust on the institution?

We don’t know just yet. But from the rumblings out there we are reminded of the time when they were parodied as “kangkongressmen.” If that happens, you can be sure to thank Marcoleta and Defensor.

And it’ll be all on official record in the archives of the House of Representatives.