Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte made headlines over the weekend.
At the Quezon Memorial Circle, where her slate’s campaign kick-off was held on March 25, 2022, she enumerated the achievements of her three-year term.
Part of her speech lambasted a rival candidate who supported the ABS-CBN shutdown in July 2020.
She decried, "Yung iba diyan, mas inuna ang pagpapasara sa ABS-CBN. Iyan may resibo.
"Iyan ang ipaliwanag mo sa mga tao na habang nasa gitna tayo ng krisis, libu-libong pamilya ang nagtiis at natiis mong mawalan ng trabaho."
Belmonte did not mention any names, but she was clearly alluding to Anakalusugan party-list Representative Michael "Mike" Defensor, who was among the 70 legislators who voted to deny the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN in July 2020.
The other mayoral candidates are Glenda Araneta, Ricardo Bello, Jose Ingles, Rolando Jota, Emma Orozco, Tom Salutan and Diosdado Velasco.
Belmonte continued, "Ni hindi mo inisip kung paano na ang pagkain at pag-aaral ng mga anak ng mga taga-ABS-CBN o mga negosyong nakadepende sa kumpanyang iyan na nagsara din.”
Read: ABS-CBN Corporation franchise renewal timeline; how much income did ABS-CBN lose in 2020?
BELMONTE ABSORBED RETRENCHED ABS-CBN EMPLOYEES
In February 2022, in an interview with the entertainment press, the incumbent mayor said she hired "several" of the "displaced" ABS-CBN employees following the network's shutdown.
Her office, she said, had improved in "pagdi-disseminate ng impormasyon sa ating mga mamamayan," thanks to these former Kapamilya employees.
Belmonte told the press, "They're very capable, very competent people.
"They were displaced, and, I think, displaced rather unfairly and unceremoniously. And the loss of... well, their loss was our gain sa Quezon City government. Kaya na-revitalize din ang ating communications department.
"At gumanda ang ating pagdi-disseminate ng impormasyon sa ating mga mamamayan, and I attribute that to the talent and skills of the men and women from ABS-CBN that we absorbed in the Quezon City government."
The 25-year legislative franchise of ABS-CBN expired on May 4, 2020.
The following day, May 5, the National Telecommunications Commission issued a cease-and-desist order against the media giant that led to the network going off the air that night.
On July 10, 2020, the Congress junked ABS-CBN's franchise renewal application.
Seventy solons, Defensor among them, voted to deny the franchise renewal, while 11 congress members voted to renew ABS-CBN’s franchise.