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Swara Sug Media Corporation

Swara Sug Media Corporation

Swara Sug Media Corporation (SSMC) owns and operates the Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) News Channel, its online arm smninewschannel.com, weekly newspapers and seven active radio stations. 

Its parent company is the “Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.”, which owns 53.46% of the company. It owns a total of 99.68% of SSMC through a combination of its 53.46% stake and the 46.22% shares of its subsidiary Phoebus Capital Holdings, Inc., which is the second top stockholder of the broadcast network.  

Apollo C. Quiboloy, SMNI founder and self-proclaimed “appointed son of God'' was, until December 2022, the executive pastor of the religious group Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC TNAEN), according to SSMC legal counsel Mark Tolentino. He was replaced by Marlon Acobo.

But during the Nov. 23, 2023 hearing of the House legislative franchises committee, Tolentino denied Quiboloy owned the company, saying the pastor is merely a blocktimer in the network. He explained that while SSMC considers Quiboloy its “honorary chairman”, the televangelist is not a corporate officer or a stockholder of the media company.

To bolster this claim, Quiboloy’s name does not appear in any document to prove ownership of the SSMC then or now. 

The change in the corporation’s head is among the violations of its legislative franchise that lawmakers unearthed during an inquiry by the House Committee approving franchises. 

The probe stemmed from a claim by one of its hosts, self-proclaimed former communist rebel Jeffrey “Ka Eric” Celiz, in his program “Laban Kasama ang Bayan,” that House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez spent P1.87 billion (US$31.670 million) for his foreign travel expenses, which House officials promptly denied.

During the committee hearing on Dec. 11, 2023, congressmen pointed out inconsistencies in the documents submitted by SSMC to both the House and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the network’s ultimate beneficial owner. 

A lawmaker noted that a document submitted to the House by the SSMC in April 2021 cited Quiboloy as the ultimate beneficial owner of the network. This contradicted the records of the SEC that showed Quiboloy was the network’s ultimate beneficial owner only until 2020, according to the regulatory body’s General Counsel Romuald Padilla. 

Meanwhile, SSMC’s legal counsel argued there might have been an error in filing their documents with the House. While Tolentino insisted that Quiboloy was no longer the head of his religious group, a check with the official website of the KOJC TNAENon Dec. 12, 2023, showed the televangelist remains its executive pastor.

Aside from a measure seeking to cancel the network’s franchise, a resolution (HR 189) has also been approved in the House on Dec. 11, 2023, urging the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to suspend the network’s franchise due to violations that include flouting the constitutional prohibition on media monopolies since SSMC is 99.68% owned by the “Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.”   

A 30-day preventive suspension order was issued by the NTC to cease broadcasting, citing HR 189 eight days later. SMNI violated the preventive suspension, prompting NTC to suspend the channel indefinitely through a Jan. 18, 2024 order. 

Despite the NTC suspension, SSMC continued broadcasting via its online platforms. 

In a bid to stop the NTC from enforcing the suspension order, the SSMC filed a petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) before the Court of Appeals (CA) in late December 2023, which was reportedly denied in a Jan. 4, 2024 decision due to the network’s failure to exhaust legal remedies including not filing a motion for reconsideration with the NTC. 

On Jan. 11, 2024, Cynthia Bonifacio, who claimed to be a member of Quiboloy’s religious group, filed a separate petition for TRO at the CA against NTC’s suspension order, citing a violation of her religious rights for not being able to watch the station’s programs.

Since Jan. 4, 2024, the network’s lawyers have filed at least two separate motions before the NTC demanding the inhibition of its three commissioners from further acting on its case and to provide the details of its alleged violations with documentary evidence.  

On Jan. 20, 2024, SMNI appealed to the Supreme Court to reverse the NTC’s indefinite suspension.  

Other than the deliberate dissemination of false information and red-tagging of groups and individuals, SSMC also allegedly attempted to circumvent a franchise provision on the dispersal of ownership by offering the public at least 30% of the company’s outstanding stocks under the law (Republic Act 11422) that renewed its franchise in 2019.  

During the Dec. 5, 2023 hearing of the committee, SSMC lawyers said that the company had asked Congress if it could transfer 30% of SSMC’s shares to the Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative, which is not an accredited or legal entity, in compliance with section 11 of the franchise law. 

However, lawmakers argued there is no provision in SSMC’s franchise that establishing a cooperative was a means to comply with their obligation to offer the public 30% of the company’s shares. 

Due to the pending investigations against SSMC, Quiboloy’s close friend and former president Rodrigo Duterte offered to bring up the matter with his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

SSMC was incorporated in 1992, with Marlon C. Rosete as its chairman and president. 

The company-declared revenue for 2022 is PhP105,088,251 (approximately US$1.848 million), which largely came from its seven radio stations.

On Quiboloy’s official personal website, he is described as the honorary chairman and founder of SMNI, whose official logo is inspired by his “head figure”. Quiboloy’s long-time worship program Give Us This Day has been airing on SMNI since 2003. 

During the celebration of his program’s anniversary in 2021, Quiboloy said, “We started the program in a makeshift studio with less than professional cameras. We were just starting then, and our media outfit (SMNI) was not yet as big as it is today.”

SMNI programs 

SMNI has also become home to, and the go-to station of politicians and personalities perceived to be supportive of both Duterte and Marcos, Jr, particularly at the start of the latter’s administration in 2022 when things were still fine between Duterte and Marcos. 

It is noteworthy that the only presidential debate Marcos, Jr. participated in during the 2022 national elections was the one organized by SMNI, as his team perceived it was the only network that held no bias against him. 

Since January 2023, Duterte has been co-hosting with Quiboloy the program “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” (From the Masses, For the Masses). Of late the former president has used the show to defend his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, amid several controversial issues and to attack her critics, as well as to hit political foes pushing for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to proceed with its probe on his administration’s bloody drug war, and make him accountable as mastermind.  

On Dec. 18, 2023, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) slapped a 14-day suspension for “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” due to Duterte’s alleged death threats to ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro during the show’s Oct. 10, 2023 episode, and “Laban Kasama ang Bayan” following Celiz’ erroneous information regarding Romualdez’ travel expenses. 

On Jan. 26, 2024, the MTRCB extended the suspension to 28 more days due to SMNI’s “unconvincing and lacking persuasiveness” in its motions for reconsideration. 

Aside from Duterte, his erstwhile spokespersons Salvador Panelo and Harry Roque also have programs on SMNI. Health Secretary Ted Herbosa, and pro-administration party-list representatives likewise have programs on the channel.

Key facts

Mother Company

Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.

Business Form

Private

Legal Form

Stock Corporation

Business Sectors

Missing Data

Ownership

Individual Owner

Apollo C. Quiboloy

The majority shareholders of Swara Sug Media Corporation are the “Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc.” with 53.46% shares and its subsidiary Phoebus Capital Holdings Inc. with 46.22%, which accounts for 99.68% of total company shares.

Quiboloy is known as the executive pastor of the religious group Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, but despite the title, the legal counsel of the Swara Sug Media Corporation denied his ever being the owner of the media company. He was replaced as the head of the group in December 2022 by Marlon Acobo.

?

Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative

There’s not much publicly available information about Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative. It does not appear in the 2023 masterlist of the Cooperative Development Authority.

However, it appears that the cooperative is related to the Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc. and the Phoebus Capital Holdings Inc. because their addresses are all located at the compound of the Quiboloy-led religious group Kingdom of Jesus Christ in Catitipan, Davao City, Davao del Sur.

In a 2016 article, the Philippine Daily Inquirer cited a similar organization called “Jesus Christ Workers and Members Cooperative” being involved in the alleged land-grabbing of Quiboloy and his Christian religious sect in Davao City. Quiboloy’s followers denied the accusation saying a group of Lumad (an indigenous people in Mindanao) who lived in the acquired area turned over their land rights to “Jesus Christ Workers and Members Cooperative” in exchange for cash or goods from the cooperative.

0.19%
Media Outlets
Other Media Outlets

Other Print Outlets

Pinas

Other TV Outlets

SMNI News Channel

Other Radio Outlets

DZAR 1026 Sonshine Radio Manila

Other Online Outlets

smninewschannel.com (12%)

Facts

Media Business

Pre- and post-production services

Business

Missing Data

General Information

Founding Year

1992

Affiliated Interests Founder

Apollo C. Quiboloy

is the founder and honorary chairman of SMNI. He was the executive pastor of the Davao-based religious group Kingdom of Jesus Christ until December 2022. He is also on the most wanted list of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation due to his alleged involvement in sex trafficking of children and engaging in sex with female members of Kingdom of Jesus Christ, among other charges.

Employees

78 (as of Aug. 1, 2023)

Contact

ACQ Tower, Sta. Rita St. Guadalupe Nuevo, Makati City

Telephone No.: (02) 8836-7324

smninewschannel.com

Tax/ ID Number

001-818-532

Financial Information

Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)

1,848,973.37955 US$ / 105,088,251 PhP

Operating Profit (in Mill. $)

Missing Data

Advertising (in % of total funding)

Missing Data

Management

Executive Board

Marlon C. Rosete

is the president and chairman of the board of directors of Swara Sug Media Corporation.

Non-Executive Board

Hannah Jane U. Sancho

is a reporter and anchor at SMNI News Channel. She is also a member of the board of directors of Swara Sug Media Corporation, and a “full time worker” at Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Supervisory Board

Missing Data

Other Influential People

Missing Data

Further Information

Data Publicly Available

ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.

2 ♥

Meta Data

Jesus Christ Workers Members Cooperative does not appear in the eSearch and SEC Express Platforms of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither it is on the list of accredited cooperatives in the country. #
X
The 2022 financial statement of Swara Sug Media Corporation provided revenue figures and a breakdown per radio station branches. The breakdown did not include its SMNI News Channel on television. It did not also specify its operating profit and total advertising revenues. #

Conversion rate on Oct. 17, 2023: PhP56.836 per US$1.

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