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[20200520] Wonpil’s IG update 

The temperature has been fluctuating a lot Let’s all be careful to not catch a cold!“

if you think that the riots are too much, unfollow me.

if you don’t think that change needs to happen now, unfollow me.

if you refuse to recognize your privileges, unfollow me.

since i have not seen anybody share information on this here, please pay attention to the philippines right now and provide any support you can. if this bill passes, people's basic rights to free speech will be taken from them.

my partner lives in the ph and she is scared and is being ignored right now by their followers despite how fatal this situation is.

The Philippines’ leading TV network ABS-CBN was ordered by the government’s telecommunications agency to cease operations on May 5, sparking outcry from the public and human rights groups, as well as a call of solidarity from fellow embattled outlet Rappler.

The National Telecommunications Agency filed an immediate ‘cease and desist’ order on 5 March after the network’s 25-year franchise licence had expired pending a renewal hearing in congress that was delayed, in part, to the coronavirus lockdown. The media giant went off-air just before 8pm on Tuesday following the decision, leaving millions without critical information of Covid-19 pandemic, many of whom are living under lockdown measures in the capital and major cities till mid-May. 

“Millions of Filipinos will lose their source of news and entertainment when ABS-CBN is ordered to go off-air on TV and radio tonight . . . when people need crucial and timely information as the nation deals with the Covid-19 pandemic,” the broadcaster said in a statement yesterday. 

The Philippines have been one of the hardest hit countries for Covid-19 in Southeast Asia, with 9,684 cases and over 600 deaths so far.

Journalists and media watchdogs have accused President Rodrigo Duterte of purposefully rejecting licence renewal proposals, having previously threatened to shut the broadcaster over their critical coverage of his administration’s decisions.

A reporter for Rappler, an online Filipino news organisation also in the government’s firing line, Ralf Rivas, told the Globe that journalists at Rappler believe that this is an “act of betrayal” against the public that ABS-CBN serves, especially as the country faces a pandemic.