"The Philippine Competition Commission can either speak out, or be quiet."
All the discussions thus far regarding franchise of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation – more specifically, the franchise’s approaching expiry on March 30, 2020 – have revolved around the political and legal aspects of the franchise that the network obtained almost 25 years ago. Hardly anything has been said about the economic aspect of the matter.
The political aspect of the renewal or non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise can be summed up in three words: President Rodrigo Duterte. The Chief Executive of this country has stated in no uncertain terms that he will veto any bill granting a renewal of the franchise. Mr. Duterte has been forthright about his disdain for ABS-CBN. The network allegedly failed to air, during the 2016 campaign period, advertisements for which he made payment. If Mr. Duterte’s claim is true – and the Chief Executive passionately says that it is – that 2016 decision will prove to be the greatest miscalculation committed by ABS-CBN in its history. Payback time is here.
The legal aspect of the renewal or non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise revolves around the Constitutional provision governing public utilities. ABS-CBN falls within the Public Service Act’s definition of a public utility. Whatever the legal requirement for ABS-CBN’s being able to operate beyond March 20, 2020 – whether or not Congressional action is required – there is no getting away from the fact that the President of the Philippines can disapprove or reverse a favorable action taken by any department or agency on ABS-CBN’s quest for franchise renewal. Nor is judicial action the solution; the courts cannot compel the President of the Philippines to perform an act involving Presidential discretion.
As stated above, the economic aspect of the coming expiry – and renewal or non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise has undergone less public discussion than it’s political and legal aspects. Yet it is likewise an important aspect.
Anyone knowledgeable about the structure of the Philippine broadcast industry knows that a key element of the resolution of the ABS-CBN issue is the competitive situation within the industry. This is not an unimportant aspect of the issue: in fact, the desire to eliminate monopolistic or oligopolistic conditions, and to level the playing field, in this country’s industries that Congress passed the Philippine Competition Act several years ago.
Because of its highly capital-intensive nature, the broadcast industry is a comparatively small industry. In this country the broadcasting industry is composed of five companies, to wit, ABS-CBN, GMA Network, Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13), TV5 Network, Inc. and government-owned PTV-4. However, the bulk of the industry’s revenues are accounted for by ABS-CBN, GMA and IBC only, a state of affairs shown by the fact that surveys of audience size are generally undertaken only for those companies. It is not incorrect to speak of the Philippine broadcasting industry in terms of a duopoly.
Under the leadership of economist Arsenio Balisacan, PCC (Philippine Competition Commission) has tried hard to fulfill its mandate, constantly looking our for threats to competition and striking down arrangements and practices that are inimical to the letter and spirit of fair competition. PCC has made its existence felt whenever unfair competition has reared its ugly head.
The possible non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise will raise the issue of competition in the Philippine broadcasting industry. Whether or not ABS-CBN is the industry’s No. 1 – that depends on which rating company is doing the rating – the fact is that the cessation of operations of ABS-CBN will give rise to monopolistic conditions in the industry, with GMA effectively becoming a monopoly. That is hardly a situation that Dr. Balisacan and his colleagues will want. That is precisely the kind of situation that the authors of the Philippine Competition Act sought to prevent.
Thus far PCC has not been heard from, but sooner or later it will have to weigh in on the ABS-CBN franchise issue. It will not be able to pretend that the issue does not exist and that there will be no corresponding impact on competitive conditions in the broadcasting industry.
Given President Duterte’s resolve to not approve an extension of ABS-CBN’s franchise, PCC, being a part of the Executive Department, will not prevail. But its views on the matter will have to be heard.
PCC has two options. One option is to speak out against the non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise and thereby incur the ire of President Duterte, with all the dire consequences of that. The other option is to keep quiet about the matter and pretend that no competition-related problem exists.
The two options are equally bad for PCC.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
IF THERE IS NO MORE ABS-CBN AGAIN (PART 1): FARING MOTHER IGNACIA’S PERFORMANCE AND FINDING THE HATRED
[WARNING: The author is not a hater of the media entity in hot water. With apologies to fanatics of this particular network but let’s face it, no media entity is perfect or sacred; every network has its flaws and successes. Please read at your own risk.]
IN the opening salvo almost two weeks ago, this year is the most crucial moment in the Philippine media industry; this is the year ABS-CBN is facing a make-or-break situation — the franchise renewal is at stake.
Six days from now, Congress will resume its plenary session and the bills regarding their franchise renewal are in the bind. Some solons like Laguna Representative Sol Aragones — who was a reporter of her previous employer — wanted to put this bill as urgent and priority before March 30 strikes.
For the past three years, President Rodrigo Duterte constantly objected for their renewal by playing different mind games. Recently, he wanted the network to be sold to his business friend Dennis Uy, the Villars or Manny V. Pangilinan — despite a mix of denials and interests — in order to dilute the Lopezes out of boardroom control anew. In a nutshell, as Ryan Ortega opined, these acts seem to generate “terrible optics.”
While media professionals and enthusiasts generally saw Mother Ignacia’s success in ratings and in business strategy, not everyone is pleased (and it’s not simply because they are hardcore loyalists from Kamuning).
What if the then-fringe, now-significant hardcore supporters of this administration got what they wished for — shutting ABS-CBN down for good or for at least, two years — despite little or no effect or even silence from both the telecommunications authority and their broadcasting associate for their non-renewal.
But before we answer that big question, we will delve into why that particular hate on the network grew and how did the network fare out for the past 10 years.
When did all the hate begin?
It all began after Cory Aquino’s funeral. MMK aired the two-part story of the couple on what would have been the former beloved President’s 77th birthday in January 2010.
Due to the airing, netizens criticized the airing as an indirect platform for their unico hijo, Noynoy Aquino to victory in the polls. At that time, certain personalities were active in the network during the period like Korina Sanchez (spouse of his running mate Mar Roxas) and obviously, her sister, Kris. However, not all personalities in the network endorsed him such as Willie Revillame and Dolphy who endorsed Manny Villar.
When Noynoy won the Presidency at the inaugural automated elections, Ricky Carandang and Manuel L. Quezon III from ANC became part of the Palace’s communications team. (The latter was responsible for making the Official Gazette in touch and informative with social media.) Thus, the weekly anthology series every Saturday became a tool to propel certain candidates into victory.
The year after (2011), a YouTube creator named PinoyMonkeyPride published a series of animated videos repeating buzzwords against the network as it was owned by “oligarchs” and their story “biased” in favor of the then sitting administration. It may have paved the way for netizens’ inspiration to create their fan pages and blog sites to hate the then-President and its actions wholeheartedly. Their accusations, however, were a mix of truths and baseless claims; it did not pay much attention in the general social media news feed but it escalated as the next presidential election approaches.
During the last days of the election campaign in 2016, this particular network aired attack ads against two candidates in two separate positions. One of them was paid by then-Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (who ran for Vice President but eventually placed dead last) attacking then-Davao City mayor. The other ad is by then-Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares (who at that time ran for Senator for the first time) who attacked against then-Senator Bongbong Marcos (wherein the latter ran but almost won the vice presidency).
After the clear and vindicated victory, the new President persistently made sporadic accusations against the network — from taking unauthorized loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines, unpaid ads and unpaid taxes despite being not true in their annual reports. These soundbites have been relayed over the cyberspace, without fact-checking and hearing the other side, and simply accepted them as gospel truth.
ABS-CBN in the 2010s
Casting aside the political colors, the 2010s on ABS-CBN made significant differences in their programming operations.
Free TV
Through cunning exploitation of absolute advantage, this network broadcast their acquired international franchises of competition shows and freely create their deviations for teens and kids like The Voice and Your Face Sounds Familiar, just to name a few.
As reality competition shows became all the rage and expanded back-to-back on weekend primetime, it pushed game shows obsolete. Regardless of that trade-off, those shows have repetitively been hosted in circles by what the Turf called, the Trinity: Luis Manzano, Billy Crawford and/or Robi Domingo. Speaking of game shows, their selection of players shifted to exclusive, non-committed stars in order to avoid defection to another network. (which became the Turf‘s first breaking point) Nonetheless, both types of shows have injected some comic relief for ratings.
Vice Ganda became the face of the network in the past decade as we see him every day of the week — at least, on It’s Showtime and on Gandang Gabi Vice (sometimes, he performs on ASAP). His incorrigible, panlalait style of comedy has influenced his co-equals with their fans continuing to tolerate him. In the late part of the decade, his jockeying antics on their live noontime show continued without a sense of time (which became another turning point).
Throughout the past 10 years, this network was responsible for boosting up the “love team manufacturing and enhancing” industry. From their conception at Pinoy Big Brother, they ventured out into drama and anthology and without a doubt, it was successful. It’s no wonder that the reboot of Wansapanataym lost its zeitgeist as a fantasy anthology with moral lessons like the first incarnation into a springboard of kalandian. (Thank goodness, they ended it last September.)
With unified MTRCB ratings fully implemented since 2011, their network’s teleseryes were mostly classified into the SPG territory. The starting times of teleseryes every weekday shifted to pre-noontime since 2012, beginning with Be Careful with My Heart.
In 2013, during their 60th anniversary, they forge a deal with CJ ENM to broadcast O Shopping as an overnight blocktimer. It almost fills up ABS-CBN’s round-the-clock schedule except on Tuesday.
In 2014, Studio 23 became ABS-CBN Sports + Action (later shortened as S+A). In the same year, late-night newscast Bandila reported a mysterious flesh-eating disease in Pangasinan, which turned out to be false.
In 2015, their encrypted set-top box, ABS-CBN TVplus was introduced in the market and were sold hot like hotcakes; as of this publication, it sold 8.9 million units and just last year, they launch their mobile version, TVPlus Go, for commuters. On that same year, Boy Abunda’s The Buzz pulled the plug — putting an end of an era for weekend afternoon showbiz scoops. Meanwhile, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano premiered and still is the successful teleserye in weekday primetime.
The following year (2016), another TV program genre was put into the dustbins of history as Luv U was the last teen-oriented program to broadcast. Children’s programming (including cartoons and anime) was downgraded into one meager slot on free TV every Sunday morning as the rest were migrated to Yey! (their exclusive digital sub-channel)
In 2019, after 14 years, kiddie-casted sketch comedy show Goin’ Bulilit pulled the plug.
Cable Operations
Because of the trend of cord-cutters — wherein cable subscription is dropped in favor of cheaper or reasonable pricing of the promised offerings on video-on-demand platforms — ABS-CBN discontinued these cable channels within the decade: ABS-CBN Regional Channel, Balls (replaced with Liga), CgeTV, Hero (became a Web portal), Lifestyle (became Metro Channel), Tag (in favor of Cine Mo! and Movie Central) and Velvet.
Radio Operations
In 2013, the network unified the FM branding as My Only Radio (M.O.R.).
Other Ventures
ABS-CBNmobile, their exclusive mobile service provider, did not last that long; the service ran from 2013 to 2018.
https://timowsturf.wordpress.com/2020/01/14/if-there-is-no-more-abs-cbn-again-part-1-faring-mother-ignacias-programming-performance-and-finding-the-hatred/
IN the opening salvo almost two weeks ago, this year is the most crucial moment in the Philippine media industry; this is the year ABS-CBN is facing a make-or-break situation — the franchise renewal is at stake.
Six days from now, Congress will resume its plenary session and the bills regarding their franchise renewal are in the bind. Some solons like Laguna Representative Sol Aragones — who was a reporter of her previous employer — wanted to put this bill as urgent and priority before March 30 strikes.
For the past three years, President Rodrigo Duterte constantly objected for their renewal by playing different mind games. Recently, he wanted the network to be sold to his business friend Dennis Uy, the Villars or Manny V. Pangilinan — despite a mix of denials and interests — in order to dilute the Lopezes out of boardroom control anew. In a nutshell, as Ryan Ortega opined, these acts seem to generate “terrible optics.”
While media professionals and enthusiasts generally saw Mother Ignacia’s success in ratings and in business strategy, not everyone is pleased (and it’s not simply because they are hardcore loyalists from Kamuning).
What if the then-fringe, now-significant hardcore supporters of this administration got what they wished for — shutting ABS-CBN down for good or for at least, two years — despite little or no effect or even silence from both the telecommunications authority and their broadcasting associate for their non-renewal.
But before we answer that big question, we will delve into why that particular hate on the network grew and how did the network fare out for the past 10 years.
When did all the hate begin?
It all began after Cory Aquino’s funeral. MMK aired the two-part story of the couple on what would have been the former beloved President’s 77th birthday in January 2010.
Due to the airing, netizens criticized the airing as an indirect platform for their unico hijo, Noynoy Aquino to victory in the polls. At that time, certain personalities were active in the network during the period like Korina Sanchez (spouse of his running mate Mar Roxas) and obviously, her sister, Kris. However, not all personalities in the network endorsed him such as Willie Revillame and Dolphy who endorsed Manny Villar.
When Noynoy won the Presidency at the inaugural automated elections, Ricky Carandang and Manuel L. Quezon III from ANC became part of the Palace’s communications team. (The latter was responsible for making the Official Gazette in touch and informative with social media.) Thus, the weekly anthology series every Saturday became a tool to propel certain candidates into victory.
The year after (2011), a YouTube creator named PinoyMonkeyPride published a series of animated videos repeating buzzwords against the network as it was owned by “oligarchs” and their story “biased” in favor of the then sitting administration. It may have paved the way for netizens’ inspiration to create their fan pages and blog sites to hate the then-President and its actions wholeheartedly. Their accusations, however, were a mix of truths and baseless claims; it did not pay much attention in the general social media news feed but it escalated as the next presidential election approaches.
During the last days of the election campaign in 2016, this particular network aired attack ads against two candidates in two separate positions. One of them was paid by then-Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (who ran for Vice President but eventually placed dead last) attacking then-Davao City mayor. The other ad is by then-Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares (who at that time ran for Senator for the first time) who attacked against then-Senator Bongbong Marcos (wherein the latter ran but almost won the vice presidency).
After the clear and vindicated victory, the new President persistently made sporadic accusations against the network — from taking unauthorized loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines, unpaid ads and unpaid taxes despite being not true in their annual reports. These soundbites have been relayed over the cyberspace, without fact-checking and hearing the other side, and simply accepted them as gospel truth.
ABS-CBN in the 2010s
Casting aside the political colors, the 2010s on ABS-CBN made significant differences in their programming operations.
Free TV
Through cunning exploitation of absolute advantage, this network broadcast their acquired international franchises of competition shows and freely create their deviations for teens and kids like The Voice and Your Face Sounds Familiar, just to name a few.
As reality competition shows became all the rage and expanded back-to-back on weekend primetime, it pushed game shows obsolete. Regardless of that trade-off, those shows have repetitively been hosted in circles by what the Turf called, the Trinity: Luis Manzano, Billy Crawford and/or Robi Domingo. Speaking of game shows, their selection of players shifted to exclusive, non-committed stars in order to avoid defection to another network. (which became the Turf‘s first breaking point) Nonetheless, both types of shows have injected some comic relief for ratings.
Vice Ganda became the face of the network in the past decade as we see him every day of the week — at least, on It’s Showtime and on Gandang Gabi Vice (sometimes, he performs on ASAP). His incorrigible, panlalait style of comedy has influenced his co-equals with their fans continuing to tolerate him. In the late part of the decade, his jockeying antics on their live noontime show continued without a sense of time (which became another turning point).
Throughout the past 10 years, this network was responsible for boosting up the “love team manufacturing and enhancing” industry. From their conception at Pinoy Big Brother, they ventured out into drama and anthology and without a doubt, it was successful. It’s no wonder that the reboot of Wansapanataym lost its zeitgeist as a fantasy anthology with moral lessons like the first incarnation into a springboard of kalandian. (Thank goodness, they ended it last September.)
With unified MTRCB ratings fully implemented since 2011, their network’s teleseryes were mostly classified into the SPG territory. The starting times of teleseryes every weekday shifted to pre-noontime since 2012, beginning with Be Careful with My Heart.
In 2013, during their 60th anniversary, they forge a deal with CJ ENM to broadcast O Shopping as an overnight blocktimer. It almost fills up ABS-CBN’s round-the-clock schedule except on Tuesday.
In 2014, Studio 23 became ABS-CBN Sports + Action (later shortened as S+A). In the same year, late-night newscast Bandila reported a mysterious flesh-eating disease in Pangasinan, which turned out to be false.
In 2015, their encrypted set-top box, ABS-CBN TVplus was introduced in the market and were sold hot like hotcakes; as of this publication, it sold 8.9 million units and just last year, they launch their mobile version, TVPlus Go, for commuters. On that same year, Boy Abunda’s The Buzz pulled the plug — putting an end of an era for weekend afternoon showbiz scoops. Meanwhile, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano premiered and still is the successful teleserye in weekday primetime.
The following year (2016), another TV program genre was put into the dustbins of history as Luv U was the last teen-oriented program to broadcast. Children’s programming (including cartoons and anime) was downgraded into one meager slot on free TV every Sunday morning as the rest were migrated to Yey! (their exclusive digital sub-channel)
In 2019, after 14 years, kiddie-casted sketch comedy show Goin’ Bulilit pulled the plug.
Cable Operations
Because of the trend of cord-cutters — wherein cable subscription is dropped in favor of cheaper or reasonable pricing of the promised offerings on video-on-demand platforms — ABS-CBN discontinued these cable channels within the decade: ABS-CBN Regional Channel, Balls (replaced with Liga), CgeTV, Hero (became a Web portal), Lifestyle (became Metro Channel), Tag (in favor of Cine Mo! and Movie Central) and Velvet.
Radio Operations
In 2013, the network unified the FM branding as My Only Radio (M.O.R.).
Other Ventures
ABS-CBNmobile, their exclusive mobile service provider, did not last that long; the service ran from 2013 to 2018.
https://timowsturf.wordpress.com/2020/01/14/if-there-is-no-more-abs-cbn-again-part-1-faring-mother-ignacias-programming-performance-and-finding-the-hatred/
Scene from Dekada 70: The National Anthem and Bayan Ko
The national anthem was sung; Bayan Ko was sung; an artist got up on the small stage and proceeded to lead the crowd in hurling good matured and quite scandalous abuse at Estrada and the 24 senators of by now, more-than-ill repute. It was as if every time the fuse was lit, the protesters made a deliberate effort to snuff it out. They even called for cheers for the policemen. The policemen looked embarrassed.
According to Luigi Penalba: "LUPANG HINIRANG yan, yung sariling music video na ginagamit sa ABS-CBN at GMA, tapos BAYAN KO, patriotic anthem ng makasaysayang EDSA People Power Revolution (EDSA Uno-1986 at EDSA Dos at Tres-2001), yung PILIPINAS KONG MAHAL, dating ginagamit sa DENR advertisement at AKO AY PILIPINO has the exact same chords/tune/music as Andraé Crouch's "My Tribute (To God Be The Glory)."
Sinulat ito noong nais ng mga Pilipinong maging malaya sa pananakop ng ibang bansa.
Kinatha ni Julian Felipe ang tugtugin ng "Lupang Hinirang." Isinulat naman ni Jose Palma ang mga titik nito. Una itong tinugtog nang itinaas ang ating watawat. Nangyari ito noong Hunyo 12, 1898. Ginanap ito sa Kawit, Cavite.
Ang ating pambansang awit ay nagpapahayag ng pagmamahal sa bansa. Inilalahad din nito ang pagtatanggol sa bansa. Ito rin ba ang ibig mo sa inyong bansa?
Tignan ang mga bata sa larawan. Tignan kung paano ipinakikita ang kanilang paggalang habang umaawit ng “Lupang Hinirang.”
Matapos umawit, ito ang mga binibigkas. Ito ay “Panatang Makabayan” at “Panunumpa sa Watawat.” Binibigkas mo rin ba ang mga ito?
Panatang Makabayan
Old version
Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas,
Ito ang aking lupang sinilangan,
Ito ang tahanan ng aking lahi,
Ako'y kanyang kinukupkop at tinutulungan.
Upang maging malakas,
Maligaya at kapaki-pakinabang.
Bilang ganti ay diringgin ko
Ang payo ng aking mga magulang;
Susundin ko ang mga tuntunin ng aking paaralan,
Tutuparin ko ang mga tungkulin ng
Isang mamamayang makabayan
At masunurin sa batas.
Paglilingkuran ko ang aking bayan
Nang walang pag-iimbot at nang buong katapatan.
Sisikapin kong maging isang tunay na Pilipino
Sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa.
New version
Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas,
aking lupang sinilangan,
tahanan ng aking lahi;
kinukupkop ako at tinutulungang
maging malakas, masipag at marangal.
Dahil mahal ko ang Pilipinas,
diringgin ko ang payo
ng aking magulang,
susundin ko ang tuntunin ng paaralan,
tutuparin ko ang tungkulin
ng mamamayang makabayan:
naglilingkod, nag-aaral at nagdarasal
nang buong katapatan.
Iaalay ko ang aking buhay,
pangarap, pagsisikap
sa bansang Pilipinas.
Panunumpa sa Watawat
Old Version
Ako’y nanunumpa sa watatwat ng Pilipinas
At sa republikang kanyang kinakatawan.
Isang bansang pinapatnubayan ng Diyos,
Buo at di mahahati,
Na may katarungan
At kalayaan para sa lahat.
New version
Ako ay Pilipino
Buong katapatang nanunumpa
Sa watawat ng Pilipinas
At sa bansang kanyang sinasagisag
Na may dangal, katarungan at kalayaan
Na pinakikilos ng sambayanang
Maka-Diyos
Maka-tao
Makakalikasan at
Makabansa.
According to Luigi Penalba: "LUPANG HINIRANG yan, yung sariling music video na ginagamit sa ABS-CBN at GMA, tapos BAYAN KO, patriotic anthem ng makasaysayang EDSA People Power Revolution (EDSA Uno-1986 at EDSA Dos at Tres-2001), yung PILIPINAS KONG MAHAL, dating ginagamit sa DENR advertisement at AKO AY PILIPINO has the exact same chords/tune/music as Andraé Crouch's "My Tribute (To God Be The Glory)."
Sinulat ito noong nais ng mga Pilipinong maging malaya sa pananakop ng ibang bansa.
Kinatha ni Julian Felipe ang tugtugin ng "Lupang Hinirang." Isinulat naman ni Jose Palma ang mga titik nito. Una itong tinugtog nang itinaas ang ating watawat. Nangyari ito noong Hunyo 12, 1898. Ginanap ito sa Kawit, Cavite.
Ang ating pambansang awit ay nagpapahayag ng pagmamahal sa bansa. Inilalahad din nito ang pagtatanggol sa bansa. Ito rin ba ang ibig mo sa inyong bansa?
Tignan ang mga bata sa larawan. Tignan kung paano ipinakikita ang kanilang paggalang habang umaawit ng “Lupang Hinirang.”
Matapos umawit, ito ang mga binibigkas. Ito ay “Panatang Makabayan” at “Panunumpa sa Watawat.” Binibigkas mo rin ba ang mga ito?
Panatang Makabayan
Old version
Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas,
Ito ang aking lupang sinilangan,
Ito ang tahanan ng aking lahi,
Ako'y kanyang kinukupkop at tinutulungan.
Upang maging malakas,
Maligaya at kapaki-pakinabang.
Bilang ganti ay diringgin ko
Ang payo ng aking mga magulang;
Susundin ko ang mga tuntunin ng aking paaralan,
Tutuparin ko ang mga tungkulin ng
Isang mamamayang makabayan
At masunurin sa batas.
Paglilingkuran ko ang aking bayan
Nang walang pag-iimbot at nang buong katapatan.
Sisikapin kong maging isang tunay na Pilipino
Sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa.
New version
Iniibig ko ang Pilipinas,
aking lupang sinilangan,
tahanan ng aking lahi;
kinukupkop ako at tinutulungang
maging malakas, masipag at marangal.
Dahil mahal ko ang Pilipinas,
diringgin ko ang payo
ng aking magulang,
susundin ko ang tuntunin ng paaralan,
tutuparin ko ang tungkulin
ng mamamayang makabayan:
naglilingkod, nag-aaral at nagdarasal
nang buong katapatan.
Iaalay ko ang aking buhay,
pangarap, pagsisikap
sa bansang Pilipinas.
Panunumpa sa Watawat
Old Version
Ako’y nanunumpa sa watatwat ng Pilipinas
At sa republikang kanyang kinakatawan.
Isang bansang pinapatnubayan ng Diyos,
Buo at di mahahati,
Na may katarungan
At kalayaan para sa lahat.
New version
Ako ay Pilipino
Buong katapatang nanunumpa
Sa watawat ng Pilipinas
At sa bansang kanyang sinasagisag
Na may dangal, katarungan at kalayaan
Na pinakikilos ng sambayanang
Maka-Diyos
Maka-tao
Makakalikasan at
Makabansa.