TV5 sports programming 'ESPN5' to go off the air; 700 TV5 workers laid off

TV5 Network, Inc. (TV5) (formerly Associated Broadcasting Company) will soon pull the plug on one of the country’s TV5's sports and channel, “ESPN5,” which first aired in 2017, and will lay off 700 of its employees.

Secretary Martin Andanar of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) told a briefing Tuesday at the Palace that the Duterte administration had no more say in the operations of the privatized network, including the retrenchment of 700 TV5 employees.

Andanar said the government could not stop the retrenchment since its “participation is limited” to the two TV5 board members representing the Kapatid network Ray C. Espinosa and Noel Lorenzana, former president of TV5.

TV5 is no longer a sports and news channel. The Kapatid network owned by MediaQuest Holdings, Inc.’s equity is only 100 percent while 70 percent, or two-thirds is already owned by private corporations and MVP Group of Companies, he said.

TV5 management, now in the hands of Cignal TV, Inc., MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. and MVP Group of Companies (MVPGOC), has already issued letters or notices of termination to some 700 employees of the network.

Based on the existing collective bargaining agreement between TV5 management and its union, the notice period is 47 days.

“We continue to monitor the developments in TV5 Network to ensure that all the rights of the employees under the Labor Code are adequately protected,” said Andanar.

Andanar admitted receiving reports that TV5 Network management would soon ax TV5's sports programming “ESPN5.”

“Whatever action (the new TV5 Network management takes) is beyond Kapatid Network. All I can say is we will ensure that they (management) remain compliant to the law,” he said.

Under a debt-to-equity conversion scheme, Cignal TV, Inc. and MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. became a blocktimer of TV5 and the latter was left with only about two hours a day to air entertainment and news & public affairs shows.

But Manuel V. Pangilinan, the TV5’s chairman of the board, clarified Tuesday that the news program would not finally sign off as earlier reported.

“We are business as usual here, and we continue our dialogue with (the) union. We continue to air ‘TV5's sports programming’ until such time all concerned parties are duly notified, including some sponsors,” said Chot Reyes through an e-mail.

In Cebu City, six employees of the TV5 got the biggest shock of their lives after they were served termination notices on Monday.

Two of the four terminated employees were Egmidio Bustillo, staff announcer of Radyo5 101.9 News FM Cebu, and  Juan Ybañez, a news staff. The other two terminated employees asked not to be identified.