Bulacan Rep. Jose Antonio “Jonathan” Sy Alvarado (from Cong. Alvarado’s Facebook page)
Another ally of ousted Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano who killed the ABS-CBN franchise just got the boot.
Bulacan Rep. Jose Antonio “Jonathan” Sy Alvarado has been removed as the chairman of the Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability last November 25.
He was replaced by DIWA Party List Rep. Michael Aglipay.
His replacement follows a series of changes in the House leadership following the ouster of other Cayetano allies Rep. Raneo Abu, Dan Fernandez, and Ron Salo who were all booted from their posts last week.
Alvarado co-chaired with Palawan Rep. Franz Alvarez the House joint committee hearing for the ABS-CBN franchise renewal.
Alvarado’s handling of the hearing was heavily criticized as he was very lenient towards rabid oppositionists to the network’s franchise renewal such as Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, Crispin Remulla, and Mike Defensor yet he was very strict to congressmen who were supportive of the network’s franchise application.
His bias against ABS-CBN was finally revealed when Alvarado was one of the 70 congressmen who voted to reject the ABS-CBN franchise.
ABS-CBN has been off the air since May 5 and was forced to lay off thousands of its workers. It’s entire regional TV and radio network group were given the pink slip after the franchise denial.
The network shifted its broadcast operation mostly online and recently returned to free TV via a block time agreement with Zoe Broadcasting Network through the A2Z Channel 11. Rommel F. Lopez