PCOO: Privatization of IBC-13 to start in October

The privatization of Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. (IBC-3) will begin in October this year, officials of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) said Tuesday.

"We will be starting on privatizing it [in] October... the IBC-13 [in] October," PCOO Undersecretary George Apacible said during the House appropriations committee's deliberations for the PCOO's proposed 2018 budget.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told congressmen that the PCOO is looking to bid IBC-13 at an estimated price of P4.2 billion.

The Cabinet official said that the bulk of the proceeds from the sale of the state-run broadcasting company will be allocated for the "revitalization" of the People's Broadcasting Corp.

"Sapagkat kaya po, 'yung mangyayari po doon sa People's Broadcasting Corp. ay pinapalakas natin ang PTV at Radyo Pilipinas ... Hindi po ito ipa-privatize, ito po ang matitirang network para sa gobyerno natin tapos 'yung proceeds ng sale ng IBC ay ilang porsyento... mga P2 billion, ay mapupunta po sa ating Peoples Broadcasting Corp.," Andanar said.

"By last quarter of this year ay magkakaroon na po tayo ng public bidding," Andanar added.

In 2015, then President Benigno Aquino III approved the privatization of IBC-13. The move was based on the recommendation of the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG). 

IBC-13 started out in 1960 as a private company known as Inter-Island Broadcasting Corp. It was later sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in 1986 as part of the recovery of ill-gotten wealth. — MDM, GMA News