The Philippines government has said it may take over ABS-CBN network’s frequency for distance-learning programming.

This comes days after the country’s Congress voted to keep the broadcaster off the air, which stopped broadcasting on May 5 when its 25-year franchise expired.

ABS-CBN’s radio and television channels reached millions of Filipinos and provided them with independent news coverage, including reporting that had angered President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte has no secret of his dislike for the company, which he says did not broadcast his campaign material when he ran for president in 2016.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said  that taking over ABS-CBN’s radio frequency as a distance-learning platform would be subject to approval by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) – the telecoms regulatory body that had ordered the network to go off the air a day after its license expired on May 4.

Earlier, House Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte filed a resolution recommending “the temporary use of by the government of ABS-CBN’s former television and radio frequencies for distance learning, instruction, training and other useful purposes to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on education in the Philippines.”

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP said the move likely was meant to legitimize the government’s takeover of ABS-CBN.

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