Aylimapak: The Fall of ABS-CBN

We all know what happened to ABS-CBN in 2020, right? Forced to shut down by the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, denied another franchise for "not paying taxes" and had its future jeopardized by his minions: Manny Villar, Jose Calida, Apollo Quiboloy, the NTC and Philippine Congress.

We take a look at what would happen if ABS-CBN *did* pay its taxes, which would only lead to worse consequences than the real timeline. Sit back, relax, pick up the popcorn, guzzle down the soda, and turn off the lights as we dive into this alternate ending to ABS-CBN's life...

**THIS IS A PART-SATIRE, PART-HYPOTHETICAL TIMELINE.**

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ABS-CBN finally agreed to pay its taxes, much to the satisfaction of Congress, now nothing more than the Duterte administration's legion of doom. But this spelled out the beginning of the end for the network's power, as paying taxes would mean having to sell its revenue.

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But the Kapamilya Army stood their ground and after much struggle they finally paid all their required taxes. The network was saved from a shutdown, for now...

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But in 2021, ABS-CBN would be forced to shut down a lot of its channels due to financial losses from all that tax-paying, starting with Cinema One. Here they are shown bowing out with good grace.

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The network managed to appease Duterte by paying taxes, but it was too late. ABS-CBN had run out of cash with which they would pay their taxes. Soon all their monthly revenue would be wasted on tax-paying and trying to save themselves from falling from the face of Philippine television which would lead to their downfall. Myx became the next victim of the Kapamilya Network's painful fall from grace, here they are shutting down.

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Yey! and then Knowledge Channel were forced to bite the dust. Suspecting that the Duterte government led the network into a trap, they lashed out.

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But the backlash they hurled towards the government did nothing. And then ABS-CBN would have to sacrifice a lot of assets. In this case, their on-screen graphics' quality petered out.

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The ABS-CBN website had to be closed down as part of the sacrifices of its assets to stay strong, but of course the Philippine government would not budge and intended on keeping the network miserable. This would spell a transformation into a shadow of its former self for the oldest TV network in Southeast Asia.

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After realizing the extent of its financial losses, ABS-CBN knew there was no turning back. The Philippine government had put them in a bad financial situation. The network finally chose to accept the fact that all good things must come to an end, and on December 1, 2021, ABS-CBN announced that it would be shutting down.

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That was the last people would see of ABS-CBN on terrestrial TV. After a special farewell party-cum-clip show, the sign-on ident played for the last time, but to really give away the sombre look, they color-inverted the ident and gave it a grayscale filter. After the ident faded out very slowly, midnight chimed, and ABS-CBN was no more. They did continue on digitally.

The following month, ABS-CBN Corporation filed for bankruptcy. Manny Villar's AMBS was awarded the frequencies of ABS-CBN by the NTC. And with Bongbong Marcos winning the 2022 elections, it seems as if there is no way out.