Salvador Panelo addressed Karen Davila’s tweet
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo clapped back to the Twitter post of Karen Davila criticizing the government for stopping ABS-CBN’s broadcast.
After the biggest TV network in the Philippines signed off on the night of May 5, Karen released this statement on her Twitter account. “Sa dami ng problema ng Pilipinas… sa dami ng nagkakasakit at namamatay sa Covid… sa laki ng problema ngayon sa ekonomiya..sa dami ng nawalan ng trabaho dahil sa covid.. Talagang pagpapatigil ng ABSCBN ang inatupag nila. Hindi ko maintindihan kung nasaan ang mga puso nito.”
In line with this, Panelo defended the side of the government. “Mali ka, Karen,” the Chief Legal Counsel of President Rodrigo Duterte said during a livestream on Wednesday.
Panelo pointed out that the Chief Executive of the Philippines has been doing his best in the battle against COVID-19. He also pointed out that the previous statement of the President saying that he wanted to end ABS-CBN referred to the violations of the network which Duterte personally experienced. “‘Yong kaniyang sinabing tatapusin ko ang ABS-CBN, ang ibig niyang sabihin, tapusin ko ang mga violations niyo,” Panelo explained.
He also pointed out that the NTC and Solicitor General Jose Calida are just doing their jobs because they are aware of the law regarding the franchise.
“Maraming panahon, maraming taon ang nakalipas, for whatever reason, hindi natalakay ng Kongreso. Hindi naman sa sinisisi natin ang Kongreso, sapagka’t and Kongreso naman po ay meron din namang sinasabi sa atin na ‘eh marami naman kaming inaasikaso hindi lang naman ‘yang prangkisa ng ABS-CBN,” he added.
Salvador Panelo also pointed out during the press briefing that it is a misconception that President Duterte has control over the Congress. He said that people should not underestimate the power, intelligence, and independence of Congress on what it wants to do.
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