What money can buy

If 2025 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Actor Vice Ganda would suddenly have a million dollars, the first thing he would buy is ABS-CBN, which lost its broadcast franchise in 2020. 

Vice Ganda was asked the hypothetical question in a Star Cinema recent vlog: “Let’s make believe that all of a sudden you had a million dollars. What’s the first thing you would buy and why would you buy it?” 

The It’s Showtime host blurted he would buy the Mother Ignacia Avenue-based broadcast complex so he could return it to its original owners. 

The broadcast company lost its franchise in May 2020 after the Philippine House of Representatives denied its renewal.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s criticisms toward ABS-CBN are believed to be the reason the House did not renew its franchise application. Since then, the network has shifted to online production and digital distribution, syndicating programs on partner channels and streaming platforms.

In mid-2025, ABS-CBN sold a significant portion (30,000 sqm) of its Quezon City headquarters compound to Ayala Land for over P6 billion, with proceeds used for debt, while ABS-CBN consolidated operations in the remaining 1.4 hectares, which includes the ELJ Center, as Ayala Land plans redevelopment. 

ABS-CBN said it would use the sales proceeds to partially pay outstanding bank loans and manage finances after its franchise denial.

A Memorandum of Agreement was signed in February 2025, with the actual Deeds of Sale finalized in August 2025, following conditions like Philippine Competition Commission clearance. 

The transaction was a major financial move for ABS-CBN to stabilize its business, allowing it to retain its essential broadcasting facilities while raising funds. 

Much earlier, in 2022, businessman Manny Villar’s Advanced Media Broadcasting System acquired ABS-CBN frequencies. 

In June 2025, ABS-CBN president Carlo Katigbak said that the network has no plans to return to free TV, explaining that if Congress were to grant them a new franchise, they would not be able to use it since its frequencies now belonged to other broadcasters. 

Recently, however, former Senator Manny Villar’s company, Advanced Media Broadcasting System (AMBS) has allowed ABS-CBN shows to air on ALLTV channel (Channel 2 in Mega Manila) through a content and airing agreement, allowing Kapamilya programs to return to free TV after ABS-CBN’s franchise lapse, a deal initiated with Villar’s excitement for the return of shows like TV Patrol and ASAP starting in early 2026. 

Vice Ganda’s reply to the hypothetical question was obviously a knee-jerk reaction, not a well-thought-out answer. It was sweet of the country’s top comedian-host-actor to be concerned with his mother studio. He really had no time to think that a million dollars when converted to peso at the current rate of one dollar to almost P60 would only be P60 billion.

That’s nowhere near the P60 billion ABS-CBN earned from Ayala Land for selling to the real estate company 30,000 square meters of ABS-CBN’s prime property in Quezon City.

The broadcast company kept the ELJ Center where it’s broadcast studios are located. 

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Playing smart or something is wrong with hibernating actress Bea Alonzo? She was a guest recently in the store opening of a diamond jewelry shop. A media guest playfully suddenly asked her: “Did you find any piece you could say is your favorite?” 

Her quick answer was: “Meron. Pero ayaw ko siyang bilhin. Gusto ko may magbigay na lang sa akin (There are some. But I don’t want to buy them. I want  someone to give some).”

Was she just sounding out her billionaire boyfriend Vincent Co of the nationwide Puregold chain of supermarkets? 

Or would Bea accept a diamond jewelry from anyone willing to give it to her no matter how much it cost? 

Well, whichever way she gets it, you could call her smart for knowing how to make a deal. 

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Allow us to close this column with a three-liner: So what if Michael Pacquiao, a son of boxing champ Manny Pacquiao, had a nose job?

If showbiz stars were to be honest, you’d know that about 90 percent of them have had jobs on some part of their face.

Some of the stars may have forgotten they had it, but their doctors have not.