Amendment to Certain Provisions of Act 3108, As Amended (An Act Creating a Public Utility Commission)

December 4, 1926

ACT NO. 3316

AN ACT TO AMEND CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF ACT NUMBERED THIRTY-ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT, AS AMENDED, ENTITLED "AN ACT CREATING A PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION, AND PRESCRIBING ITS DUTIES AND POWERS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES"

SECTION 1. The name "Public Utility Commission" appearing in Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight is hereby replaced by "Public Service Commission." Whenever the words "Public Utility Commission" or "Public Utility Commissioner" or "Assistant Public Utility Commissioner" appear in said Act, the words "Public Service Commission," "Public Service Commissioner," and "Assistant Public Service Commissioner" shall, respectively, be substituted in lieu thereof; and whenever the words "public utility" appear in any part of said Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight not amended herein, the same shall be understood to be replaced by "public service." And whenever the word "Commissioner" appears in this Act and in Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight and its amendments, it shall be understood to refer to the Public Service Commissioner and the Assistant Public Service Commissioners.

SECTION 2. Section one of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight, as amended by section one of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and ninety-two, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 1. There is hereby created a Commission which shall be designated and known as the Public Service Commission, and which shall be vested with the powers and duties hereafter specified. Whenever the word 'Commission' is used in any section of this Act, it shall be held to mean the 'Public Service Commission.' The Public Service Commission shall consist of a Public Service Commissioner and two Assistant Public Service Commissions, each of whom shall be citizens of the United States or of the Philippine Islands, residents of the Philippine Islands, members of the Bar of the Philippine Islands, and not under thirty years of age and who shall be appointed by the Governor General by and with the advice and consent of the Philippine Senate, and shall have the rank and all prerogatives and privileges of judges of Courts of First Instance and shall belong to the Judiciary of the Philippine Islands: Provided, That the above provision to the contrary notwithstanding, the present Public Utility Commissioner and Assistant Public Utility Commissioner shall continue to perform the duties of their respective offices on and after the date on which this Act takes effect and shall be known as 'Public Service Commissioner' and 'Assistant Public Service Commissioner.' "

SECTION 3. Section two of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight, as amended by section two of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and ninety-two, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 2. The Commissioners shall hold office until removed as hereinafter provided. All the powers herein vested upon the Public Service Commission shall be considered vested upon any of the Commissioners, acting either individually or jointly as hereinafter provided. The Commissioners shall equitably divide among themselves all pending cases and those that may hereafter be submitted to the Commission, in such form and manner as they may determine, and shall proceed to hear, try, and finally decide the cases assigned to each: Provided, That any one of the Commissioners may call the other two when an especially difficult and important matter has come up which in his judgment requires the opinion, advice, aid, and concurrence of the others, for the decision, in joint session, of the question that has arisen or the case that has been submitted, by a majority vote of the Commissioners, and when either of the parties requests it, the three Commissioners may act jointly as a collegiate court to decide the case submitted or question presented by a majority vote of the Commissioners: Provided, further, That Public Service Commissioner shall attend to all administrative business of the Commission, and in case of his absence, illness or incapacity, the Commissioner ranking next highest in emoluments shall do so. The Commissioners may be removed from the office for the following reasons and no other: for physical incapacity, misconduct, incompetency, negligence, and irregularity in the performance of their duties, or any act constituting a misdemeanor, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by section one hundred and seventy-three of Act Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and eleven, known as the Administrative Code."

SECTION 4. Section three of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight, as amended by section one of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and fifty-three, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 3. The Public Service Commissioner shall receive an annual compensation of twelve thousand pesos; one Assistant Public Service Commissioner shall receive an annual compensation of ten thousand pesos; the other Assistant Public Service Commissioner shall receive an annual compensation of eight thousand pesos, and the Secretary of the Commission shall receive an annual compensation of four thousand five hundred pesos, all to be paid monthly by the Insular Treasurer."

SECTION 5. Section ten of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight, as amended by section three of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and ninety-two, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 10. The Commission shall have its office in the City of Manila at such place as may be designated, and any of the Commissioners may hold hearings on any proceedings at such times and places, within the Philippine Islands, as it may provide by order in writing: Provided, That during the months of May and June of each year, only one of the Commissioners shall be on duty and the other two shall be on vacation, in such manner that each Commissioner shall be on duty during the vacation months once every three years: Provided, further, That nothing hereinbefore provided shall prevent any of the Commissioners from rendering service and remaining on duty during the vacation months when the interest of the public service requires it: Provided, finally, That notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, the Commissioners shall be entitled to accrued leave privileges in the manner prescribed for judges of Courts of First Instance."

SECTION 6. Section thirteen of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 13. The Commission shall have general supervision and regulation of, jurisdiction and control over, all public services, and also over their property, property rights, equipment, facilities and franchises so far as may be necessary for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of this Act. The term 'public service' is hereby defined to include every individual, copartnership, association, corporation, or joint-stock company, whether domestic or foreign, their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, or any municipality, province, or other department of the Government of the Philippine Islands, that now or hereafter may own, operate, manage, or control within the Philippine Islands, for hire or compensation, any common carrier, railroad, street railway, traction railway, subway, freight and or passenger motor vehicles, with or without fixed route, freight or any other car service, express service, steamboat or steamship line, ferries, small water craft, such as lighters, pontines, lorchas, and others, engaged in the transportation of passengers or cargo, shipyard, marine railway, marine repair shop, public warehouse, public wharf or dock not under the jurisdiction of the Insular Collector of Customs, ice, refrigeration, canal, irrigation, pipe line, gas, electric light, heat, power, water, oil, sewer, telephone, wire or wireless telegraph system, plant or equipment; Provided, That as regards such common carriers, by land or by water, whose equipment is used principally or secondarily in furtherance of their private business, the net earnings of the latter business shall be considered in connection with their common carrier business for the purposes of rate fixing: Provided, further, That the Commission shall have no jurisdiction over ice plants, cold storage plants, or any of the other services above mentioned, operated by the Federal Government exclusively for its own use and not to serve private persons for pay or compensation, nor over animal-drawn carts or ferries below two tons engaged principally in carrying freight." EHSAaD

SECTION 7. Subsection (g) of section twenty-four of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight is hereby amended to read as follows:

"(g) Any person who shall obstruct the Commission or any of the Commissioners while engaged in the discharge of official duties, or who shall conduct himself in a rude, disrespectful or disorderly manner before the Commission or any of the Commissioners, while engaged in the discharge of official duties, or who by word of mouth or in writing shall show disrespect to or insult any of the Commissioners on occasion or account of the discharge of their official duties, shall for each offence upon conviction thereof in a court of competent jurisdiction, be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand pesos or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court."

SECTION 8. Section thirty of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and eight is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 30. In default of compliance with any order of the Commission when the same shall become effective the person or public service affected thereby shall be subject to a penalty of not exceeding two hundred pesos per day for every day during which such default continues, to be recovered in an action in the name of the Government of the Philippine Islands, and observance of the orders of the Commission may be enforced by mandamus or injunction in appropriate cases, or by action to compel the specific performance of the order or orders so made, or of the duties imposed by law upon such public service: Provided, That the Commission may compromise any civil or other action arising under this Act, in such manner and for such sum as it may deem just and reasonable."

 

SECTION 9. The sum of twelve thousand pesos, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the salaries of the Assistant Commissioner created by this Act and of a stenographer and a deputy secretary.

SECTION 10. This Act shall take effect upon its approval. aTADcH

Approved: December 4, 1926