1 week ago
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I had an inkling it was coming. But that didn’t lessen the shock nor the sadness when I learned that ABS-CBN is selling a large part of its historic headquarters in Quezon City to property developer Ayala Land. So, that is how my professional home for many years will end up…a pile of rocks to make way for yet another condominium or mall development.
ABS-CBN will sell to ALI 30,000 square meters of its 44,027-sqm Broadcast Center in Quezon City for P6.2 billion to pay off debts. ABS-CBN will consolidate its existing operations in the remaining 1.4 hectares where the ELJ Center stands.
This development makes business sense because the Quezon City property is a very valuable asset that is no longer maximized now given ABS-CBN's lack of franchise.
But for us Kapamilyas, selling the crown jewel is the ultimate blow. And this was not the first time selling it was considered. But this time, it seems pretty final. In both cases, the reasons are the same… political backlash from an unfriendly tenant in Malacañang and the need to pay debt.
An earlier attempt to sell everything was revealed in the biography of Geny Lopez. After martial law padlocked ABS-CBN, negotiation was completed to sell to Kokoy Romualdez, the brother of Imelda Marcos and father of current Speaker Martin Romualdez. Geny said he had no choice and figured that a fire sale was better than nothing. To Geny, the sale to Kokoy would restart the network’s operations which was important to him because Kokoy agreed to re-employ his 1,200 employees and he can repay the network’s debts.
Citibank, ABS-CBN’s major creditor, was tasked to make an inventory and appraisal to set a price. As Geny’s biography relates it: On May 4, 1973, all the agreements were signed and ABS-CBN was to reopen under new management on June 15, 1973. But another crony, Roberto Benedicto stepped in and eventually took over for free after his Kanlaon Broadcasting facilities burned down.
After EDSA and the return of the facilities to the Lopezes, paying debts was on top of Geny’s agenda, his biography relates.
“Geny had long been bothered by the ABS-CBN debts left stranded in 1972 when the Marcos regime seized the network… It had owed P48.1 million to various lenders including Citibank… Citibank pressed Marcos and Benedicto to pay the debts since they controlled the broadcast center. In time the banks gave up and wrote off the debts as casualties of political turmoil.”
But Geny did not forget. Although ABS-CBN no longer had a legal obligation to pay those debts, Geny felt a keen moral obligation.
“So in 1987, Geny arranged to repay the network’s outstanding debts… Geny wanted the new ABS-CBN to begin its second life with a clean slate… the lenders were very pleased to recover tens of millions of funds they had long ago written off… Geny’s move greatly boosted the standing and credibility of ABS-CBN in the local and international financial markets… Geny demonstrated ABS-CBN was not only a company that knew how to play and win the game, but it would play the game by gentlemen’s rules.”
What followed after EDSA was the golden age of ABS-CBN which Duterte cut short.
My only hope now is that the Ayalas will have some historical sense and preserve some portions of the complex.
They can keep the lobby where a marker of the National Historical Institute cites the historic importance of the building. No condo development can boast of such a historical marker.
Maybe the Ayalas can keep the large logo on one wall of the lobby and the radio booths overlooking the entrance. Assuming they redevelop it to a high-rise condo building, they can still call it “the broadcast center” and loudly differentiate it from other condos nearby.
The Dolphy Theater should also be preserved. It can attract some of the ABS-CBN celebrities and their fans to buy a stake in the building. The Dolphy Theater could be rented out for movie premiers and corporate events and pay for itself.
The other feature worth preserving is the broadcast tower, a historical monument of EDSA 86. Blood was actually shed there by a soldier who was killed in the early hours of our nation’s struggle against the tyranny of the dictatorship. There could be an EDSA 86 museum at the lower level and a restaurant near the top. The historic tower, a relic of EDSA 86, shouldn’t end up being dismantled and sold for scrap.
I am clutching at straws here in an attempt to preserve a piece of our nation’s past. The ABS-CBN center belongs to the memories of Filipinos. It was once upon a time the most modern in Asia. American networks were covering the Vietnam War and transmitting their reports via satellite from there.
So, maybe for historical reasons, Ayala shouldn’t completely tear down everything. We need reminders of the past to guide us into the future. The Ayalas understand that. After all, they preserved Nielsen Tower, a historic reminder of what Makati once was.
Selling their crown jewel to pay debts is so very Lopez. Geny would be sad as he watches from above but he knows he would have done it too.
Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco
