[ REPUBLIC ACT NO. 5321, June 15, 1968 ]
AN ACT GRANTING THE WORLDWIDE COMMUNICATIONS, INC., A FRANCHISE TO ESTABLISH RADIO STATIONS FOR DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:
SECTION. 1. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution to the provisions not inconsistent herewith, 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," 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 World-Wide Communications Inc., its successors or assigns the right and privilege of constructing, installing, establishing and operating in the Philippines and at such places as the grantee may select, subject to the approval of the Department of Public Works Communications or any competent authority who is now or shall be in the future authorized to give said approval, stations for international telecommunications, public coastal radio stations with corresponding relay stations, public fixed and public based and land mobile and radio paging systems and all stations authorized to receive and transmit via radiotelephony (voice) and/or radiotelegraphy, and/or any other type or mode of reception and transmission, visual, electronic, electrical or other means and stations in the broadcasting, television, radiophoto and facsimile services, both domestic and international and stations to provide and/or lease radio telegraph, facsimile, teletype or any other communication services to the public and/or public or private entities, persons, firms, companies, and corporations within their internal framework and/or to communicate between said internal stations and grantee's network station/stations including, without limitations as to the generality thereof stations operating via satellite system, within the Philippines or in other countries and with vessels and aircraft over the air, irrespective of whether such vessels or aircrafts are within or without the Philippines.
SEC. 2. The President of the Philippines shall have the power and authority to permit the construction of said stations or any of them on any land of the public domain upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.
SEC. 3. This franchise shall continue for a 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 the same shall be void unless the construction of said stations be begun within two years from the date of approval of this Act and be completed within four years, from said date: Provided, however, That suitable receiving and transmitting frequencies shall have been assigned to the grantee, upon proper request to the designated authorities specifically empowered to discharge such functions.
SEC. 4. a) Subject to provisions and limitations hereof and, other applicable laws, grantee shall, upon proper request to the government authorities assigned to act on such matters, be assigned suitable receiving and transmitting frequencies. This franchise shall not take effect nor shall any powers hereunder be exercised by the grantee until such frequencies shall have been allotted to the grantee and licensed for its use.
b) The Secretary of Public Works and Communications, on reasonable notice to grantee, may at any time change, cancel, or modify, in whole, or in part, any or all of the allotments of frequencies or wave lengths so assigned. 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 communications, or stifle competition to obtain a monopoly in electrical communication, or ,to otherwise violate the laws, and public policy of the Republic of the Philippines; (2) whenever in his judgment, the public interests require that such frequencies or wave lengths should be used for other purposes than those of the grantee, either by the government or by other individuals and/or entities licensed by it; and (3) 'whenever in his judgment, for any reason, the public interests of the Philippines so require.
SEC. 5. The stations of the grantee shall be so constructed and operated and the wavelengths so selected as to avoid interference with existing stations and to permit the expansion of the grantee's services.
SEC. 6. A special right is reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, rebellion, public peril, calamity, disaster or disturbance of peace or order to cause the closing of the grantee's stations or to authorize the temporary use and operation thereof by any department of the government upon payment of just compensation to the grantee for such use.
SEC. 7. The grantee shall hold the national, provincial and municipal governments of the Philippines harmless from all claims, accounts, demands, or actions arising out of accidents or injuries, whether to persons or to property, caused by the construction or operation of the stations of the grantee.
SEC. 8. No private property shall be taken for any Purpose by the grantee without proper condemnation proceedings and just compensation paid or tendered therefor, and any authority to take and occupy land contained herein shall not apply to the taking, using or occupying of any land except as is required for the actual necessary purposes for which this franchise is granted.
SEC. 9. The grantee shall keep an account of the gross receipts of its business and shall furnish the Auditor General and the Treasurer of the Philippines a copy each of such account not later than the fifteenth day of April of each year for the preceding year. All the books and accounts of the grantee pertaining to its business 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 the 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.
SEC. 10. The right is hereby reserved to the Government of the Philippines, through the Public Service Commission, or such other government agency as may hereafter be duly authorized, to fix the maximum rates or charges to be charged by the grantee.
SEC. 11. The grantee shall file a bond in the amount of twenty-five thousand pesos to guarantee faithful compliance and performance of grantee's obligations hereunder. If, after two years from the date of approval of this Act the grantee shall have fulfilled said obligations, or as soon thereafter as the grantee shall have fulfilled the same, the aforesaid bond shall be cancelled by the Government.
SEC. 12. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of or sell this franchise or the rights or privileges acquired hereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation or other entity, nor merge with any other person, company or corporation organized for the same purpose without the approval first of the Congress of the Philippines. 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 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 had been originally granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or entity.
SEC. 13. This franchise shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by the Congress of the Philippines when public interest so requires and shall not be interpreted as an exclusive grant of the privileges herein provided. Any term or terms or authorized services more favorable than those herein granted, that in the past have been granted or in the future might be granted in a similar franchise or temporary permit by Congress to any competing person, natural or juridical, tending to place the herein grantee at any disadvantage, shall ipso facto become a part of the terms hereof and shall operate equally in favor of the grantee as in the case of said competing person.
SEC. 14. in consideration of this franchise and rights hereby granted and any provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, the grantee shall pay the same taxes as are now or may hereafter be required by law from other individuals, co-partnerships, private, public or quasi-public associations, corporations, or joint stock companies, operating under a similar franchise on real estate, buildings and other personal property, radio equipment, machinery and spare parts needed in connection with the business of the grantee. In consideration of this franchise, a tax equal to two per centum of all gross receipts from the business transacted under this franchise by the grantee shall be paid to the Treasurer of the Philippines each year, within ten days after assessment as provided in this Act.
SEC. 15. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Enacted without Executive approval, June 15, 1968.