Photo: Angel Locsin / IG" width="100%" />
Netizens putting a bounty on public figures’ heads seems to be an ongoing trend in recent weeks, but with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) busy with other high profile cases, actress Angel Locsin thought she’d take it upon herself to report that a man was offering PHP200 million (US$3.9 million) to have her and her ABS-CBN co-stars killed.
Yep, twice the price of having President Rodrigo Duterte snuffed out.
Locsin posted a screengrab on her Instagram yesterday, in which a netizen on Tuesday wrote, “Are you a supporter of President [Rodrigo] Duterte and [rival network] GMA? Then I will give 200-million to any Duterte and GMA supporters who can kill Kim Chiu, Coco Martin, and Angel Locsin.”
“You can even join the NPA [New People’s Army] in blowing up the ABS-CBN Compound,” it read.
The NPA is the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, operating largely in the countryside.
Locsin captioned, “Hello NBI? Maybe [you] can…”, suggesting that the bureau should probably investigate the threat.
Previously, Locsin’s fellow-threatened colleagues had been in the spotlight on separate occasions for their ABS-CBN related opinions. Martin had lashed out at the National Telecommunications Commission and Solicitor General Jose Calida, faulting them for their “jackass” actions that led to ABS-CBN’s abrupt shutdown.
Locsin herself had called out Calida for warning the NTC that they will face graft charges if they issue a temporary license to ABS-CBN. Shortly after, the NTC issued a cease-and-desist order to its now-shuttered broadcast operations.
Read: Actress Angel Locsin tells Calida: ‘You will be remembered as the man who killed ABS-CBN’
Chiu meanwhile, clapped back at trolls by releasing a music video that remixed her confusing yet cute take on the ABS-CBN shutdown.
The media giant was granted a temporary license to operate by the House of Representatives on May 13, which would have allowed them to resume broadcast in June if approved by Duterte. However, several days later, the House moved to drop the provisional license, saying it would instead resume the hearings to grant the embattled network a new, 25-year franchise.
House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, who said that he had personal objections about renewing the network’s franchise, yesterday announced that Congress “should be ready to decide” if they will grant the network a fresh franchise by August, which means ABS-CBN will remain off the air for at least three more months.
“I foresee that the hearings would not go beyond July, and by August, after President Duterte’s SONA [State of the Nation Address], we should be ready to decide,” Cayetano said.
