Amendment to R.A. No. 511 (Grant of Permit to Bolinao Electronics Corp.)

June 21, 1969

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 5730

AN ACT AMENDING THE TITLE AND CERTAIN SECTIONS OF REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED FIVE HUNDRED ELEVEN, ENTITLED "AN ACT GRANTING THE BOLINAO ELECTRONICS CORPORATION A TEMPORARY PERMIT TO CONSTRUCT, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE STATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION AND STATIONS FOR TELEVISION IN THE PHILIPPINES"

SECTION 1. Section one of the Republic Act Numbered Five hundred eleven is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 1. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation is hereby granted a franchise for a period of fifty years from the approval of this Amendatory Act, to construct, maintain and operate, for commercial purposes and in the public interest stations for international telecommunication, excluding domestic telecommunication, and stations for television in the Philippines: Provided, That the grantee shall provide adequate public service time to enable the Government, through the said television stations, to reach the population or important public issues; shall assist in the functions of public information and education; shall conform to the ethics of honest enterprise; and shall not use its stations for the broadcasting of obscene or indecent language, speech, act or scene, or 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 2. Section three of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 3. The grantee shall file a bond in the amount of fifty thousand pesos to guaranty for the full compliance and fulfillment of the conditions under which this franchise is granted. If after four years from the date of the approval of this Act, the grantee shall have fulfilled said conditions, or as soon thereafter as the grantee shall have fulfilled the same, the bond aforesaid shall be cancelled by the Government."

SECTION 3. Section four of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 4. In the event of any competing individual, partnership or corporation receiving from the Congress a similar temporary permit or 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 a 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." cdt

SECTION 4. Section five of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 5. The grantee shall be liable to pay the same taxes on its real estate, building and personal property, exclusive of the franchise as other persons or corporation are now or hereafter may be required by law to pay.

SECTION 5. Section six of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 6. In the event of war, rebellion, insurrection or similar national crisis and the Government shall find it necessary to maintain and operate for itself any or all of the stations herein authorized, the grantee shall temporarily turn over such station or stations to the Government after payment of just and reasonable compensation for the use thereof." casia

SECTION 6. Section eight of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 8. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise nor the rights and 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 previous approval 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 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." casia

SECTION 7. The title of the same Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"An Act granting ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation a franchise to construct, maintain and operate stations for international telecommunications and stations for television in the Philippines."

SECTION 8. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Enacted without Executive approval, June 21, 1969.

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 66, No. 1, p. 18 on January 5, 1970