Tycoon Manuel Pangilinan said he was keen on hiring as many displaced ABS-CBN workers as he can to reinvigorate his own network, TV5. Deprived of a fresh 25-year franchise that shut its TV and radio broadcast, ABS-CBN will lay off workers from Aug. 31.
Pangilinan's first hire from ABS-CBN was multi-awarded international news anchor Cathy Yang as Group Head of Corporate Communications. Yang will replace PLDT's longtime communications chief, Mon Isberto.
"I'm quite keen about seeing what we could do to employ their cameramen, their directors, scriptwriters, whatever else those who are behind the camera so that we could provide employment as much as we can moving forward," Pangilinan was quoted on ABS-CBN News.
"Of course, the part of that is the ability to generate the new content on the part of TV5," said Panglinan, chairman of Mediaquest Holdings that operates the network.
ABS-CBN has been streaming fan favorites on Facebook and YouTube, going full blast on Aug. 1. These include FPJ's Ang Probinsyano and It's Showtime. It went off air on May 5. It did not say how many of its 11,000 workers would be affected by the layoffs.