Ateneo BUILD: Revisiting Ateneo students’ engagement with IBC-13

On 3 October 2025, President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr signed into law Republic Act No. 12311, which extends the franchise of state-owned Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13) by another 25 years.

“The renewal of IBC’s franchise marks a renewed commitment to strengthen our role as a vital pillar in Philippine broadcasting,” IBC-13 President and Chief Executive Officer Jimmie Policarpio said in a statement. 

As part of the franchise renewal process, IBC-13 worked with management engineering (BS ME) students in the John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM) taking Strategic Management (LAS 120). Riza Quevada, Bianca Angeles, Tiffany Chua, Janna Medrero, Lois Miranda, Joyce Ong, and Regina Yu (BS ME ’23) recommended the broadcaster pursue an intensive strategy of growing its digital presence through social media, content-interest alignment, and curated content. They anchored this recommendation on comprehensive analyses of industry, current strategy, and company financials.

Angeles shares that she “found working with IBC very rewarding as it served as an avenue for us to go beyond the theoretical application of our lessons and previous learnings.” She adds that she “found it also value-adding and meaningful how we were able to somehow be of aid to an organization that is very significant to the Philippines’ history and is gearing to serve our country and its citizens more in the future.” For Quevada, “the engagement with IBC served as a fruitful experience to our Strategic Management class due to the challenge it gave us.”

According to Former 2nd District of Albay Representative Joey Sarte Salceda, the principal author of the franchise renewal bill, the students’ findings were presented to the Committee on Legislative Franchises of the House of Representatives “to prove that the network’s challenges can be addressed through sound management, modernization, and strategic planning.”

Ateneo’s engagement with IBC-13 was an early prototype of the work done by the Ateneo Business Insights Laboratory for Development (BUILD), housed under the JGSOM. BUILD was formally established in 2024 to provide external stakeholders with the research rigor needed for data-driven decision-making and offers multidisciplinary expertise. BUILD advances the use of operations research, data analytics, financial modeling, generative artificial intelligence, and data platform services.

The successful engagement with IBC-13, culminating in the broadcaster’s 25-year franchise renewal, underscores Ateneo students’ capability of making an impact in the public sector and industry.

For more information on how BUILD engages the public sector and drives industry applications, visit https://www.ateneo.edu/jgsom/build.