Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023, has pleaded with the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from shutting it down for 30 days, arguing that it was denied due process.
The plea from a network that brags that its “owner” Pastor Apollo Quiboloy is both the “appointed son of god” and “owner of the universe,” among other titles, is queer since Quiboloy had been boasting that he had stopped earthquakes, caused typhoons to change course and prevented tsunamis from lashing Mindanao. Apparently, he is powerless to stop the calamity known as the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) from freezing SMNI’s operations for 30 days.
The suspension took effect on Dec. 19 and SMNI’s lawyers Mark Tolentino and Rolex Suplico hastened to file the case before the CA to prevent further losses to Swara Sug Media Corp. (SSMC), the official corporate name of the network. The lawyers claimed the NTC ordered SMNI’s suspension without giving the network a chance to answer the allegations lodged against it.
SMNI has been the carrier of the scurrilous diatribes of former president Rodrigo Duterte against ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, whose sin was to expose the P221.424-million secured by Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio from the Contingent Fund of the Office of the President (OP) in December 2022. The money is auditable and cannot be charged to the Confidential and Intelligence Fund (CIF) of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) since there was no CIF for Sara’s office for the entire year.
While SMNI or SSMC claim to be an autonomous entity, they are inextricably linked to Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which has been venerating Quiboloy rather than Jesus Christ, and which operates foundations that are supposed to be funding the ministry among children. Quiboloy has been charged with trafficking in children, using them to bet for cash in California and elsewhere, and maintaining a number of women on night duty, a euphemism for sexual services. He is wanted by the FBI and his trial has been set for next year, possibly later than the expected trial of Rodrigo Duterte before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
Aside from Duterte’s program, SMNI airs the program of Lorraine Badoy Partosa and Jeffrey Celiz, two of the most notorious red-taggers in the Philippines today. Partosa already faces a complaint before the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), both of which seek to scrap her license and professional accreditation as a physician. Both worked for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC.) Celiz and Badoy face a number of civil cases for red-tagging Dr. Carol Pagaduan Araullo, her son Atom Araullo, Bayan chairman Teddy Casino, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro. Others are also set to file charges against them, including a top government official.
SMNI is complaining why the NTC froze its operations as soon as the Lower House approved Resolution 189, which called for SMNI’s suspension for airing the claim by Celiz and Badoy that Speaker Martin Romualdez spent P1.8-billion for foreign travel last year. This was false, howled Romualdez partisans, perhaps thinking that Duterte, Badoy and Celiz gives a hoot about the veracity of their claims. Apparently, they forgot that Sara Duterte had set the tone for dishonesty when she declared that honesty is not needed in politics. The programs of Duterte and the Badoy-Celiz duo were also canned for 14 days by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB.)
Indeed, truth is not needed in their politics and neither is it required by SMNI, which at one time saw a top executive walking out of a program to quit over the bad treatment of his idolized politician. The SMNI Holy Family is comprised of only three—Quiboloy, Duterte and Sara. There is no Marcos there, no Lisa, no Romualdez and no Yedda. Even before the NTC’s suspension of SMNI, a bill has already been filed to cancel its 25-year legislative franchise, not only for propagating lies but also for failing to sell 30% of its stocks to the general public, as the franchise required.