State-owned Philippine television broadcaster International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13) will close down by January 2023 unless it receives fresh funding, a senior government official has said.

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said the broadcaster was being allocated no funding in the 2023 budget. She appealed to the House of Representatives to adjust the budget to provide funds, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.

IBC-13 comes under the Office of the Press Secretary along with the main public broadcaster PTV (also known as PTNI) and the radio network PBS. Ms Cruz-Angeles took over as Press Secretary on 30 June 2022.

The broadcaster is being considered for privatisation but she said even if this went ahead, it needed funding in 2023 to continue operations and enable its employees to keep their jobs.

She said PTV was designated to handle news and information, while IBC was tasked with handling education, culture and the arts.

IBC was a private company from 1959 to 1986. Since then, it has been state-owned and has seen many difficulties because of financial restraints. During the closure of schools in the pandemic it aired educational programmes from May 2020 to June 2022.