Grant of Authority to Toll Regulatory Board to Grant Ex-Parte Provisional Toll Rate Increases

June 21, 1983

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 1334-A

 

WHEREAS, the Toll Regulatory Board was established pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 1112 to closely supervise and regulate the operation of toll facilities by the private sector and the collection of toll fees;

WHEREAS, the Toll Regulatory Board is empowered, among others, to issue, modify and promulgate from time to time the rates of toll that will be charged the direct users of toll facilities and upon notice and hearing to approve or disapprove petitions for the increase thereof;

WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to clarify the intent of Presidential Decree No. 1112 since it does not expressly grant the Toll Regulatory Board authority to grant ex-parte provisional or temporary increases in toll rates pending notice and hearing of the petition filed with it for increases in toll rates;

WHEREAS, it is the intent of Presidential Decree No. 1112 that the Toll Regulatory Board shall have the power and authority to grant ex-parte provisional toll rate increases, pending hearing of and decision on the merits of the petition for toll rate increases, and that said provisional toll rate increases shall be effective immediately;

WHEREAS, consistent with the aforesaid intent of Presidential Decree No. 1112, it is in the interest of motorists in particular and the public in general to provide for a plain, speedy and adequate legal remedy in cases where, in order to prevent delay or stoppage of urgent improvements or expansion of toll facilities or to expedite necessary repairs of toll facilities, reasonable adjustments in existing toll rates need to be immediately implemented; cdt

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby direct, order and instruct the Toll Regulatory Board to grant and issue ex-parte to any petitioner, without need of notice, publication or hearing, provisional authority to collect, pending hearing of and decision on the merits of such petition, the increase in rates prayed for or such lesser amount as the Board may in its discretion provisionally grant, upon (a) a finding that the said petition is sufficient in form and substance, (b) the submission of an affidavit by the petitioner showing that the increase in rates substantially conforms to the formula, if any, stipulated in the franchise or toll operation agreement/certificate of the petitioner and that failure to immediately impose and collect the increase in rates would result in outright delay or stoppage of urgently needed improvements, expansion or repairs of toll facilities and/or in great irreparable injury to the petitioner, and (c) the submission by the petitioner to be Board of a bond, in such amount and from such surety or sureties and under such terms and conditions as the Board shall fix, to guarantee the refund of the increase in rates to the affected toll payers in case it is finally determined, after notice and hearing, that the petitioner is not entitled, in whole or in part, to the same. Any provisional toll rate increases shall be effective immediately upon approval without need of publication.

This Letter of Instructions shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 21st day of June, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Three.