As a fundamental principle that expression and communication through media which includes but not limited to the traditional and digital formats, press freedom should be considered a right as stated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. This is the reason why most investors supported the 25-year franchise renewal application of ABS-CBN Corporation (ABS) when it became a subject of contention among the members of the Philippine House Committee on Legislative Franchises whose majority voted against it. Brought about by the rejection of its franchise application, gross revenue decreased by 16.8% to P17.8 billion from P21.4 billion while net loss decreased by 58.1% to P5.7 billion from P13.5 billion for the comparable years ended 31 December 2021 and 31 December 2020. Although we wanted to sympathize with its partisan politics-induced predicament, the recent business behavior of ABS has dented its corporate reputation. ABS was sanctioned by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for failure to comply with several provisions of Article VII of the Consolidated Listing and Disclosure Rules. According to the PSE, ABS violated Section 1 mandating public companies to adhere to the updated, complete and accurate disclosure of material public information, Section 4.1 requiring public companies to disclose material public information within 10 minutes from receipt of the details, Section 4.2 prohibiting public companies from disclosing material public information to anyone unless such are about to be disclosed to the PSE, Section 4.3 instructing public companies to report any developments that could have a material impact on financial standing, market position and share prices, and Section 16 directing public companies to update prior statements made erroneous by subsequent events within 10 minutes from receipt of the details. The updated, complete and accurate disclosure of material public information is considered as mandatory reportorial requirements by the PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission hence its prompt submission is expected by the capital market stakeholders which include but not limited to traders, analysts, investors, managers and regulators. But these basic disclosure requirements are not basic for some public companies that cannot submit them due to a broad range of unacceptable excuses that they blame on systematic risk or risk inherent to the market and unsystematic risk or risk specific to the company. Although we expect them to use unsystematic risk or risk specific to the company as an excuse, we believe that ABS is a rule breaker and has no one to blame but themselves.
