ON May 6, 2026, ABS-CBN Director Federico “Piki” Lopez filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the network and its top officers. The complaint sought the appointment of an independent management committee to prevent further dissipation of the company’s assets and called for a comprehensive audit of its financial statements.
Three days later, ABS-CBN issued a statement calling the complaint “unfair” to its “employees.” These “employees” turned out to be chairman Martin “Mark” Lopez, president and CEO Carlo Lopez Katigbak, and CFO Ricardo Tan Jr. — the respondents named in the complaint. Piki Lopez asked the SEC to investigate them for allegedly violating corporate and securities laws by approving excessive compensation packages for themselves and other officers, as well as questionable capital expenditures despite the network’s ongoing solvency issues.
Just weeks earlier, Carlo Katigbak told employees during an April 14 town hall meeting: “Magkakapamilya tayo. We will fight for you always, because the most important stakeholders in ABS-CBN are the people we work with.”
The following day, ABS-CBN responded to an article on the alleged mismanagement of its pension fund. According to the network, it had retrenched “close to 6,000 employees... as a result of the franchise loss.” It claimed that the payouts to these employees caused the “largest decline” in its pension fund.
What the statement did not explain is why ABS-CBN used its employees’ retirement savings for the separation pay of 6,000 employees — an obligation that, by law, rests solely on the employer. Instead, it cited the payouts from the pension fund as “proof of ABS-CBN’s commitment to fully meet all its obligations to its employees.”
Meanwhile, the network paid its top five officers a combined P1.22 billion from 2020 to 2025, while recording a cumulative net loss of P45.45 billion over the same period. Carlo Katigbak has consistently ranked among the network’s top five highest-paid officers. He was appointed president and CEO in 2015 after nearly two decades at SKY Cable — a subsidiary that ultimately cost the network P4.3 billion in investment losses and P6.3 billion in asset impairments.
In its April 17 news release, the network touted content revenue growth to P12.59 billion in 2025, citing a P421-million increase in advertising revenues from primetime hits such as “Batang Quiapo” and “TV Patrol,” as well as consumer revenues rising to P5.46 billion from film, music and BINI’s sold-out world tour. Yet the company still reported a P4.72-billion net loss for the year.
Kamanggagawa Party-list Rep. Elijah San Fernando, in a privilege speech delivered in Congress on May 4, refocused the conversation on the employees: “Despite all the glitz and glamor... it is the regular employees — those who toil day in and day out — who keep the bright lights... running. Ang mga writer, camera crew, reporter, security guard at maging mga interns — mga nasa likod ng kamera — ang siyang bumubuhay sa sektor ng media.”
San Fernando spoke of the working conditions of contractual drivers, who endure 10-hour workdays and double as assistant cameramen in high-risk areas for an extra P100. He disclosed that these drivers have received threats of work bans for protesting. He criticized the long-standing practice of contractualization, which he said enables companies to generate billions in revenue while denying employees regular wages and benefits.
ABS-CBN has yet to issue a response to San Fernando’s privilege speech.
Its silence contrasts with its May 9 official statement, in which it urged director Piki Lopez to “just engage the board in constructive discussion” instead of “publicly calling out certain employees.” Aside from calling the public discussion “unfair,” it claimed the SEC complaint was “uncalled-for.”
According to the complaint, respondents Mark Lopez, Carlo Katigbak and Ricardo Tan authorized P10.6 billion in compensation packages and advances to the top five officers and other favored persons from 2020 to 2025, despite the company’s solvency problems. These disbursements, the complaint alleged, were made “with a conscious indifference to the adverse and prejudicial consequence... to the corporation’s rank-and-file employees, minority shareholders, creditors and the investing public.”
The complaint also alleged that the company disbursed P12.1 billion for capital assets during the same period, even though ABS-CBN no longer held a franchise to operate radio and television stations. This raised questions as to whether these capital assets were for the benefit of the network, or ”simply a means to further siphon corporate funds to the benefit of Management and other favored persons.”
The employees — the nearly 6,000 employees retrenched supposedly due to the franchise loss, along with those who supported the network through voluntary pay cuts and their retirement savings — have questions.
But ABS-CBN has characterized the SEC complaint as “a fight they are not part of” (“away na hindi amin”). In its May 8 disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the network said it will “provide the appropriate response to the relevant regulator at the appropriate time.”
The network’s employees, whom Carlo Katigbak recently called “the most important stakeholders in ABS-CBN,” will have to wait.
