REPUBLIC ACT No. 5046
An Act Granting Far East Business Enterprises a Franchise to Construct, Maintain and Operate Radio Broadcasting Stations in the Philippines
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:
Section 1. There is hereby granted to Far East Business Enterprises, a single proprietorship existing under the laws of the Philippines with principal office at Manila, its successors and assigns, and herein referred to as the grantee, a franchise to construct, install, maintain and operate in the Philippines, at such places as the conduct and operation of the business of said grantee may require and to provide private radio communication services and equipment to individuals, firms, companies and corporation within their respective internal framework, and/or to communicate from within with the grantee’s station or stations in the network, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, or any proper licensing authority, radio broadcasting stations, fixed, aeronautical fixed, aeronautical, aircraft, land based, land mobile, portable, coast, ship, survival craft, radio determination and radio beacon stations for the reception and/or transmission of wireless intelligence on radiotelegraphy or radiotelephony, inclusive but not limited to facsimile, radioteletype, nationally or internationally, each station to be provided with radio transmitting equipment and/or radio receiving equipment, as necessary.
Section 2. A special right is reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, rebellion, public peril, calamity, emergency, disaster, or disturbance of peace or order, to take over or operate the said stations or to authorize the temporary use and operation thereof by any department of the Government upon due compensation to the grantee for the use of said stations during the period they shall be operated.1avvphi1
Section 3. The President of the Philippines shall have the power and authority to permit the construction of stations or any of them on any land of public domain upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.
Section 4. This franchise shall continue for the period of twenty-five years from the date the first of said stations shall be placed in operation and is granted upon the express condition that same shall be void unless the construction of one or two stations be begun within two years from the date of the approval of this Act.
Section 5. The grantee, its successors or assigns, shall so construct and operate its radio stations as not to interfere with the operation of other radio stations maintained and operated in the Philippines.
Section 6. No private property shall be taken for any purpose by the grantee of this franchise, its successors or assigns, without proper condemnation proceedings and just compensation paid or tendered therefor, and any authority to take and occupy land contained herein shall not authorize the taking, use, or occupation of any land except such as is required for the actual necessary purpose for which the franchise is granted. All lands or rights of use and occupation of lands granted to the grantee, its successors or assigns, shall, upon the termination of this franchise or upon its revocation or repeal, revert to the national, provincial or municipal government to which such land or right to use and occupy belong before the same was conceded to the grantee herein, its successors or assigns.
Section 7. The right is hereby reserved to the Government of the Philippines, through the Public Service Commission, duly authorized, to fix the maximum rates or charges to be imposed by the grantee.
Section 8. The grantee shall keep a separate account of the gross receipts of the business transacted by it in the Philippines and shall furnish the Auditor General and the Treasurer of the Philippines a copy of such account not later than the thirty-first day of January of each year for the preceding year. For the purpose of auditing the accounts so rendered to the Auditor General and the National Treasurer, all the books and accounts of the grantee, or duplicates thereof, as far as they relate to the business transacted in the Philippines, shall be kept in the Philippines, and shall be subject to the official inspection of the Auditor General or his authorized representatives, and the audit and approval of such accounts shall be final and conclusive evidence as to the amount of said gross receipts, except that the grantee shall have the right to appeal to the courts of the Philippines under the terms and conditions provided in the laws of the Philippines.
Section 9. 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 five 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 have fulfilled the same, the bond aforesaid shall be cancelled by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications.
Section 10. Acceptance of this franchise shall be given in writing within one year after 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, to grantee shall be empowered to exercise the privileges granted thereby.
Section 11. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise, or the rights or privileges acquired thereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity, nor merge with any person, 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 conditions, terms, restrictions and limitations of this franchise as fully and completely and to the same extent as if the franchise has been originally granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity.
Section 12. In the event of any competing individual, partnership or corporation, receiving from Congress a similar franchise in which there shall be any term or terms more favorable than those herein granted, or tending to place the herein grantee at any disadvantage, then such term or terms shall ipso facto become part of the terms hereof, and shall operate equally in favor of the grantee as in the case of said competing individual, partnership or corporation.
Section 13. This franchise shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by Congress of the Philippines when the public interest so requires and shall not be interpreted as an exclusive grant of the privileges herein provided for.
Section 14. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Approved: June 17, 1967.
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