Amendment to Various Sections of Commonwealth Act No. 146 (Public Service Act)

June 8, 1939

COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 454

AN ACT TO AMEND VARIOUS SECTIONS OF COMMONWEALTH ACT NUMBERED ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX, KNOWN AS THE PUBLIC SERVICE ACT

 Sections thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred and forty-six, known as the Public Service Act, are amended so as read as follows:

"SEC. 13. (a) The Commission shall have jurisdiction, supervision and control over all public services and their franchises, equipment, and other properties, and in the exercise of its authority, it shall have the necessary powers and the aid of the public force: Provided: That it shall have no authority to require steamboats, motorships and steamship lines, whether privately owned, or owned or operated by any Government controlled corporation or instrumentality, to obtain certificates of public convenience or to prescribe their definite routes or lines of service ; EHCaDS

"(b) The term 'public service' includes every person that now or hereafter may own, operate, manage, or control in the Philippines, for hire or compensation, with general or limited clientele, whether permanent, occasional or accidental, and done for general business purposes, any common carrier, railroad, street railway, traction railway, sub-way, motor vehicle, either for freight or passenger, or both, with or without fixed route and whatever may be its classification, freight or carrier service of any class, express service, steamboat, or steamship line pontines, ferries, and small water craft, engaged in the transportation of passengers and freight, shipyard, marine railway, marine repair shop, warehouse, wharf or dock, ice plant, ice-refrigeration plant, canal, irrigation system, sewerage, gas, electric light, heat and power, water supply and power, petroleum, sewerage system, telephone, wire or wireless telegraph system and broadcasting radio stations.

"(c) The word 'person' includes every individual, co-partnership, joint-stock company or corporation, whether domestic or foreign, their lessees, trustees or receivers, as well as any municipality, province, branch or agency of the Government of the Philippines, and whatever other persons or entities that may own or possess or operate public services."

"SEC. 14. The following are exempted from the provisions of the preceding section:

"(a) Ice and refrigeration plants and the other public services operated in the Philippines by the Government of the United States for its exclusive use and not to serve to persons for hire or compensation;

"(b) Municipal warehouses;

"(c) Vehicles drawn by animals and bancas moved by oar and/or sail; AICHaS

"(d) Airships within the Philippines except as regard the fixing of their maximum rates on freight and passengers;

"(e) Radio companies except with respect to the fixing of rates;

"(f) Public services owned or operated by any instrumentality of the National Government or by any government-owned or controlled corporation."

"SEC. 15. With the exception of those enumerated in the preceding section, no public service shall operate in the Philippines without possessing a valid and subsisting certificate from the Public Service Commission, known as 'certificate of public convenience,' or 'certificate of convenience and public necessity,' as the case may be, to the effect that the operation of said service and the authorization to do business will promote the public interests in a proper and suitable manner.

"The Commission may prescribe as a condition for the issuance of the certificate provided in the preceding paragraph that the service can be acquired by the Commonwealth of the Philippines or by any instrumentality thereof upon payment of the cost price of its useful equipment, less reasonable depreciation; and likewise, that the certificate shall be valid only for a definite period of time; and that the violation of any of these conditions shall produce the immediate cancellation of the certificate without the necessity of any express action on the part of the Commission.

"In estimating the depreciation, the effect of the use of the equipment, its actual condition, the age of the model, or other circumstances affecting its value in the market shall be taken into consideration.

"The foregoing is likewise applicable to any extension or amendment of certificates actually in force and to those which may hereafter be issued, to permits to modify itineraries and time schedules of public services and to authorizations to renew and increase equipment and properties."

 Subsection (h) of section twenty of the same Act is amended so as to read as follows:

"(h) To sell or register in its books the transfer or sale of shares of its capital stock, if the result of that sale in itself or in connection with another previous sale, shall be to vest in the transferee more than forty per centum of the subscribed capital of said public service. Any transfer made in violation of this provision shall be void and of no effect and shall not be registered in the books of the public service corporation. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the holding of shares lawfully acquired." EDSAac

 All the provisos following the word "departments" in paragraph (9) of subsection (j) of section twenty of the same Act are repealed and the colon following the aforesaid word is changed into a period.

SECTION 4. Section forty of the same Act is amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 40. The Commission is authorized and ordered to charge and collect from any public service the following fees:

"(a) The (a) charge of twenty-five pesos for the registration of:

"(1) Applications under the provisions of sections sixteen (a), (b), (c), and (d), and twenty (a), (b), (c), (f), (g), and (h): Provided, however, That no fee shall be collected for the reduction of rates if the same does not alter or modify in any way the basic rates of the schedule.

"(2) Applications for the approval or modifications of maximum rates under section fourteen.

"(b) Fifteen pesos shall be collected from operators of land transportation for the registration of:

"(1) Applications under sections seventeen (f), and twenty (a) and (b).

"(2) Applications for the extension of time for the registration of motor vehicles previously authorized by the Commission.

"(c) Other applications filed by any public service operator not specifically provided for in the preceding paragraphs of this section other than motions of a temporary or incidental character.

"(d) For reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the Commission for the supervision and regulation of the operations of motor vehicle services:

"(1) For each automobile or motor truck of less than one ton net transportation capacity, five pesos.

"(2) For each motor truck of one ton or more but less than two tons net transportation capacity, ten pesos.

"(3) For each motor truck of two or more, but less than three tons net transportation capacity, twenty pesos. HTIEaS

"(4) For each motor truck of three tons or more but less than four tons net transportation capacity, thirty pesos.

"(5) Motor trucks or bus of four tons or more net capacity shall pay at the rate of ten pesos per ton net or fraction thereof.

"The fees provided in this section shall be paid on or before June thirtieth of each year with a penalty of fifty per centum in case of delinquency: Provided, however, That motor vehicles registered in the Bureau of Public Works after June thirtieth shall be exempt from payment for said year.

"(e) For reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the Commission in the supervision of other public services; ten centavos for each one hundred pesos or fraction thereof, of the capital stock subscribed or paid, or if no shares have been issued, of the capital invested.

"(f) For the increase of capital stock, ten centavos for each one hundred pesos or fraction thereof, of the increased capital.

"(g) For each permit authorizing the increase of equipment, the installation of new units or authorizing the increase of capacity, or the extension of means or general extensions in the services, ten centavos for each one hundred pesos or fraction of the additional capital necessary to carry out the permit.

"(h) For the first inspection or certification of each apparatus or meter used by any public service, two pesos, and for subsequent examination, the expenses incurred in making the examination shall be paid.

"(i) For certification of copies of official documents in the files of the Commission, fifty centavos, plus twenty centavos for each page or folio so certified.

"All collections of fees provided in this section shall be covered into the Philippine Treasury. This article shall not be applicable to the Commonwealth of the Philippines, nor to its instrumentalities, nor to enterprises that have legislative franchises for the exercise of which the law specifies the payment of a certain per centum of their earnings in lieu of any other taxes, fees, or license fees." THEDCA

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 8, 1939