Benedict Maravilla

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called on ABS-CBN Corporation for its decision to lay off workers as it faces a drop in advertisement revenue.

Photo Courtesy of PEP.ph.

In a statement released on October 20, the organization condemned the company and the media industry for ‘prioritizing business’ instead of the welfare of their workers.

“While seeking viability and survival is understandable, big media owners all too often prioritize profits, with employees bearing the brunt of, and being the last to know about, measures to reduce losses,” they stated.

NUJP stressed that the company is yet to provide transparency on the job cuts, saying that short warnings about management decisions affect the workers’ livelihood and mental health.

“The lack of transparency, however, is at the very least unfair to all our Kapamilya colleagues, retrenched or not,” they stated.

The organization also vowed to track the benefits and support that ABS-CBN had promised to its workers in its statement through InsiderPH.

“We note the company’s commitment…and will monitor the layoff proceedings to help ensure that management delivers on that promise,” they stated.

NUJP sees this matter as a threat to information dissemination, especially that there is an upcoming election. They also believe that the job layoffs might cut down the reach of news in other areas in the country.

“Job cuts in media, especially approaching an election year, impair discourse, the free flow of information, and the public's right to know as fewer media workers have to take on more tasks,” they noted.

The organization also recalled ABS-CBN’s shutdown in 2020 which affected thousands of jobs in the company and that the public should be aware of the roots of the issue.

“NUJP also calls on fellow media workers and on the public to remember how and where this series of job cuts started, and to never forget what they took from us,” 

Around 100 employees or 3 percent of the company’s workforce were retrenched following economic constraints.