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Ang Kapatiran decries 'unfair' treatment by ABS-CBN


The Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) of presidential aspirant John Carlos “JC" de los Reyes has threatened to file a case against a television network for allegedly treating their candidates “unfairly." In a press briefing on Friday, AKP president Eric Manalang said ABS-CBN violated the Fair Elections Act by failing to invite their vice presidential candidate Dominador "Jun" Chipeco for the “Harapan: The Vice Presidential Debate" last Sunday. "We will be filing a case of the violation of Fair Elections Act against ABS-CBN. With this action we have no choice but to stop all cooperation with ABS-CBN until a resolution is reached," AKP logistics officer Rica Manalang said. AKP logistics officer Rica Manalang lamented that often times “we have to invite ourselves" before the network would allow the AKP candidates to join the forums. De los Reyes and Chipeco are lagging in preference surveys. The party might lodge the complaint before the poll body next week, said Rica. Section 2 of Republic Act No. 9006 or the Fair Elections Act states "the state shall, during the election period, supervise or regulate the enjoyment or utilization of all franchises or permits for the operation of media of communication or information to guarantee or ensure equal opportunity for public service, including access to media time and space, and the equitable right to reply, for public information campaigns and fora among candidates and assure free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections." Bong Osorio, corporate communications head of ABS-CBN, denied that the network has been unfair to the AKP. “I don’t think so," Osorio told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. He declined to elaborate and said they would await the copy of the party’s complaint against them. The AKP said it would boycott the network's events "even given the painful consequence that it will have to the party that does not even have a minute of infomercials and needing all this exposure." “We find it inappropriate to continue collaborating with them and so we will not attend any of the fora or interviews from henceforth until there is a clear reconciliation and rectification of the damage that has been done to the party," Manalang said. “An apology… would help to soften out the damage that has been done," he added. Manalang said AKP has received hundreds of text messages from its supporters all over the country expressing fears on how its local candidates would be treated by the giant broadcasting network, given the alleged bias against its national-level candidates. “The question there is, are they totally discounting, disregarding the other candidates when the game is not yet finished? I think there is something wrong with that," said AKP chairman Manual Dayrit, who was also present at the briefing.—JV, GMANews.TV

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