REPUBLIC ACT No. 4161
AN ACT GRANTING THE PHILIPPINE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION A FRANCHISE TO ESTABLISH, INSTALL, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE WIRE AND/OR WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, LINES, CIRCUITS AND STATIONS THROUGHOUT THE PHILIPPINES, FOR PUBLIC DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS.
Section 1. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and the provisions of Act Numbered Three thousand eight hundred and forty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the regulation of radio stations and radio communications in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes;" Act Numbered Three thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, known as the Radio Broadcasting Law; Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred forty-six, known as the Public Service Act, and their amendments, and other applicable laws, there is hereby granted to the Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corporation hereinafter referred to as the "grantee" a franchise to establish, install, operate and maintain in the Philippines, at such places as the said grantee may select, telecommunications (radio, telegraph and telephone) systems, lines, circuits and/or stations, wire and/or wireless, for international and domestic public communications with the authority to receive and transmit messages, impressions, pictures, music, entertainment, advertising and signals throughout the Philippines and between the Philippines and foreign countries, including ships at sea, airplanes and other conveyances, by means of electricity, electromagnetic waves or any other kind of energy, force, variations or impulses whether conveyed by wires, radiated through space or transmitted through any other medium, to supply facilities for such purposes and to charge and receive compensation therefor by tolls and charges.
Section 2. Subject to the limitations and procedure prescribed by law, the grantee is authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain, insofar as may be reasonably necessary to further the establishment and efficient maintenance and operation of its telecommunications systems, lines, circuits and/or stations and connecting them to one another. The grantee is authorized to construct and maintain its works of public utility and service over and across public property of the Philippines, including streets, highways, squares and reservations, and other similar property of the Government of the Philippines and its branches.
Section 3. This franchise shall continue for a period of twenty-five years from the date the said telecommunications systems, lines, circuit and/or stations shall be put in operations, and is made upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless at least one international circuit and/or station or one domestic telecommunication system, circuit and/or station be begun within two years from the date of the approval of this Act and be completed within four years from said date.
Section 4. (a) This franchise shall not take effect nor shall and powers thereunder be exercised by the grantee until the Secretary of Public Works and Communications shall have allotted to the grantee the frequencies and wave-lengths to be used thereunder and determined the stations to and from which each such frequencies and wave lengths may be used, and issued to the grantee a license for such use, unless the grantee shall use existing channels, circuits and/or stations of communications duly licensed by the Philippine Government.
(b) The Secretary of Public Works and Communications on reasonable notice to the grantee, may at any time change, or cancel, or modify, in whole or in part, any or all the allotments of frequencies or wave lengths to be used. He may take such action (1) whenever in his judgment such frequencies and wave lengths have been used, or there is danger that they will be used by the grantee to impair electrical communication, or stifle competition, or to obtain a monopoly in electrical communication, or to secure unreasonable rates for such communication, or otherwise to violate the laws or public policy of the Republic of the Philippines; (2) whenever in his judgment the public interest of the Philippines require that such frequencies or wave lengths should be used for other purposes than those of the grantee, either by the Government of the Philippines or by other individuals or corporations licensed by it; and (3) whenever in his judgment for any reason the public interests of the Philippines so require.
(c) The Secretary of Public Works and Communications is authorized to appoint, employ or make use of such boards, commissions, or agents as in his discretion he may select, to investigate and determine the facts upon which he may act as aforesaid, and such boards, commissions and agents shall have the right by the compulsory process of subpoena, to summon witnesses, administer oaths and take evidence.
Section 5. (a) The telecommunications systems and stations of the grantee shall be so constructed and operated that a minimum of interference will result and the wave lengths selected with a view to avoiding interference with existing stations and to permit the expansion of the grantee's services.
(b) The operations of the telecommunications systems, circuits and/or stations of the grantee shall be in strict accordance with the provisions of the Philippine communication laws and regulations and of those of international communications laws, regulations and agreements to which the Republic of the Philippines is a signatory.
Section 6. A special right is hereby reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, rebellion, public peril or other national emergency and when public safety requires, to cause the closing of the grantee's circuits and/or stations or to authorize the use of possession thereof by any department of the Government without compensation to the grantee for the use of said stations during the continuance of the national emergency.
Section 7. The operation and activities of the telecommunications systems, lines, circuits and/or stations of the grantee shall contribute to the public welfare; shall conform to the ethics of honest enterprise; shall assist in the functions of public information and education; and shall not be used for the dissemination of deliberately false information, or willful misrepresentation, or to the detriment of the public health, or to incite, encourage or assist in subversive or treasonable acts.
Section 8. The right is hereby reserved to the Government of the Philippines, through the Public Service Commission, or such other office as may be hereunto duly authorized, to fix the minimum and maximum rates to be charged by the grantee.
Section 9. (a) The grantee shall comply with all the requirements of the Government applicable to duly organized corporations and to public communication carriers, and shall pay the same taxes on its real estate, buildings and personal property, exclusive of the franchise, as other persons or corporation are now or hereafter may be required by law to pay.
(b) The grantee shall further pay to the Treasurer of the Philippines each year, one and one-half per centum of all gross receipts from business transacted under this franchise by the said grantee in the Philippines.
Section 10. The franchise hereby granted shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by the Congress of the Philippines, and the right to use and occupy public property and places hereby granted shall revert to the respective governments, upon the termination of this franchise, by such repeal or by forfeiture, or expiration in due course. Unless earlier terminated by any such repeal or forfeiture, or extended, the franchise and rights hereby granted shall terminate by expiration of twenty-five years after the date of the acceptance of this Act by the grantee.
Section 11. As a condition of the granting of this franchise, the grantee shall execute a bond in favor of the Government of the Philippines, in the sum of fifty thousand pesos in form and with sureties satisfactory to the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, conditioned upon the faithful performance of the grantee's obligations hereunder during the first three years of the life of this franchise. If, after three years from the date of the acceptance of this franchise, the grantee shall fulfilled said obligations or soon thereafter as the grantee shall have fulfilled the same the bond aforesaid shall be canceled by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications.
Section 12. Acceptance of the franchise shall be given in writing within one year approval of this Act. When so accepted by the grantee and upon the approval of the bond aforesaid by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications the grantee shall be empowered to exercise the privileges granted thereby.
Section 13. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise, nor the rights or privileges acquired thereunder, to any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity, nor merge with any other company or corporation organized for the same purpose, without the approval of the Congress of the Philippines first had. Any corporation to which this franchise may be sold, transferred or assigned shall be subject to the corporation laws of the Philippines now existing or hereafter enacted, and any person, firm company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity to which this franchise is sold, transferred or assigned shall be subject to all the conditions, terms, restrictions and limitations of this franchise as fully and completely and to the same extent as if the franchise had been granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity.
Section 14. This franchise shall not be interpreted to mean an exclusive grant of the privileges herein provided for.
Section 15. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Approved: June 20, 1964
The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation
