Piki Lopez seeks SEC probe, halt of ABS-CBN decline

BUSINESSMAN Federico “Piki” R. Lopez has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to audit ABS-CBN Corporation and investigate its top management, led by the media company’s chairman Martin “Mark” Lopez, for allegedly squandering tens of billions of pesos of the losing media company’s resources and for violating the Revised Corporation Code and the Securities Regulation Code.

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Aside from Mark Lopez, also named respondents in the complaint are ABS-CBN president Carlo L. Katigbak and its treasurer and group chief financial officer Ricardo B. Tan.

Piki Lopez’s verified complaint, filed before the SEC on May 6, 2026, through attorney-in-fact and corporate finance professional Gonzalo Ocampo, sought an urgent investigation into systemic fraud, misrepresentation, and the “unabated dissipation” of ABS-CBN assets by the company’s top management.

Piki Lopez is a member of ABS-CBN’s board of directors. His complaint alleged that the questioned actions of management “reveal a concerning pattern where a significant amount of corporate funds were disbursed in recent years to [i] unduly favor certain officers of the Corporation, or [ii] to siphon cash out of the Corporation through unnecessary expenses or both.”

The complaint added that the expenses “are clearly causing damage and prejudice to the rank-and-file employees, minority shareholders, the creditors, and the investing public.”