In a move to maximize its revenue potentials, the Aquino government intends to rehabilitate the two sequestered television stations, RPN 9 and IBC 13, before they will be placed on the auction block.

President Benigno S. Aquino III said the plan is to overhaul RPN 9 and IBC 13, two stations sequestered after the fall of the Marcos regime in 1986, to make them attractive to prospective buyers.

“You want to sell the product at the most optimum moment. For instance you have an old car. You won’t sell it if it doesn’t run if the doors don’t open. You won’t get a price that’s suitable for it,” Aquino told reporters Wednesday.

To sell the two stations at “distressed prices” would not be prudent action, he justified.

Aquino said the two television stations are "valuable" commodities and would be "even more valuable once the economy really perks up, which we expect shortly."

The Chief Executive said the question now is if the government can afford efforts to improve the television networks' financial standing. In the case of RPN 9, he said there are “substantial moves” to alleviate its liabilities “that made it such an unattractive prospect.”

“We will see up to what extent we can improve the saleability of the product and maximize the returns of the state before we embark on selling it,” he said.

Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma earlier bared plans to privatize the two television stations within two years in a bid to generate funds for the government.

Coloma said the government is ready to dispose of the two government sequestered television networks if there are “competitive and acceptable offers” from investors.

“We don't have to wait for rehabilitation if there are competitive and acceptable offers that will conform to legal requirements. But we have to improve quality of management while pursuing privatization,” he said.

Senator Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos Jr., meanwhile, has questioned the government’s plans to privatize sequestered assets, saying it has no right to claim ownership of these properties. Marcos claimed that the sequestration cases of the stations have not been resolved in court.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, for his part, said the government can sell the television stations without rehabilitating them and let the buyer modernize the stations.

The two stations were among those sequestered by the wealth-hunting body, Presidential Commission on Good Government, following the assumption into power of the late President Corazon Aquino after a bloodless coupd’etat in 1986.