Aquino OKs privatization of IBC-13

President Benigno Aquino III has approved on Monday the privatization of Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13).

The move was based on the recommendation of the Governance Commission for Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG).

The privatization process will be done through public bidding with an estimated initial bid price of P1.977 billion.

The process will be implemented by an inter-agency committee composed of representatives from GCG, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), and IBC-13.

The GCG cited three reasons for IBC-13’s privatization:

• Functions or purposes duplicate or unnecessarily overlap with the functions, programs, activities, or projects already provided by a government agency
• The Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) is involved in an activity best carried out by the private sector (the State only needs one television broadcasting company to meet its limited purpose)
• The GOCC is not producing the desired outcomes, or no longer, achieving the objectives and purposes for which it was originally designed and implemented, and/or not cost efficient and does not generate the level of social, physical, and economic returns vis-à-vis the resource inputs

The privatization follows the revitalization of the state-owned People’s Television Network, Inc. (PTV-4) in 2013 under Republic Act No. 10390.

The GCG said operations of PTV-4 is “sufficient to address market failures in the private broadcast industry such as providing programs with social value but are not considered profitable”. 

The Commission added that IBC-13 was also in financial distress although it was subsidized by the government. It was operating at an average net loss of P45.26 million from 2010 to 2014, but receiving operational subsidies amounting to only P23.56 million in 2015.

“The privatization should pave the way for infusion of additional capital to revitalize the network, which will also be able to operate with more flexibility as a private entity,” GCG said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, the company still has commercial value as a broadcasting company, making it a proper subject for privatization,” it added.

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. — BAP, GMA News