Grant of Radio Station Franchise to Benjamin Puzon

June 18, 1966

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4673

AN ACT GRANTING BENJAMIN PUZON A FRANCHISE TO CONSTRUCT, ESTABLISH, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE PRIVATE FIXED POINT-TO-POINT COASTAL, AERONAUTICAL, LAND-BASED AND LAND-MOBILE RADIO STATIONS FOR THE RECEPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WITHIN THE PHILIPPINES

SECTION 1. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, Benjamin Puzon is hereby granted a franchise to construct, establish, maintain, and operate in the Philippines at such places as the grantee may select, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, private fixed point-to-point coastal, aeronautical, land-based and land-mobile radio stations for the reception and transmission of wireless messages on radiotelegraph or radiotelephone, each to be provided with a radio transmitting-receiving apparatus.

SECTION 2. The President of the Philippines shall have the power and authority to permit the location of said radio stations or any of them on lands of the public domain upon such terms and conditions as he may prescribe.

SECTION 3. This franchise shall continue to be in force during the time that the Government has not yet established similar service in the places selected by the grantee and is granted upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless the construction of at least one of the said radio stations be begun within one year from the date of approval of this Act and be completed within three years from said date.

SECTION 4. The grantee shall not engage in the domestic business telecommunications in the Philippines without further special approval of the Congress of the Philippines, it being understood that the purpose of this franchise is to secure to the grantee the right to construct, establish, maintain, and operate said radio stations at such places within the Philippines as the interest of the grantee and of his trade and business may justify.

SECTION 5. This franchise shall not take effect until the Secretary of Public Works and Communications shall have allotted to the grantee the frequencies and wave lengths to be used thereunder, but the grantee may use the international distress frequency of five hundred kilocycles and the high distress frequency of eight thousand two hundred eighty kilocycles whenever necessary.

SECTION 6. No fees are chargeable as the radio stations that may be established by virtue of this Act shall engage in communications regarding the grantee's business only.

SECTION 7. The grantee shall so construct and operate its radio stations so as not to interfere with the operation of other radio stations maintained and operated in the Philippines.

SECTION 8. 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 either to property or persons, caused by the construction or operation of its radio stations.

SECTION 9. A special right is hereby reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, insurrection, public peril, emergency, calamity, or disaster to cause the closing of the grantee's radio stations or to authorize the temporary use or possession thereof by any department of the Government upon payment of just compensation.

SECTION 10. This franchise shall continue for twenty-five years from the date at least one of said stations shall be in operation: Provided, That the grantee shall assist in the functions of public information and education, shall conform to the ethics of honest enterprise, and shall not use said stations to transmit obscene or indecent language or speech or false information or willful misrepresentation, nor to incite, encourage or assist in subversive or treasonable acts: Provided, further, That such provisions of Act Numbered Thirty-eight hundred forty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the regulation of radio stations and radio communications in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes," shall be applied as far as practicable to the radio transmission and reception referred to in Section one hereof.

SECTION 11. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise, nor the rights or privileges acquired thereunder to any person, natural or juridical, nor merge with any other person, without the approval of the Congress of the Philippines first had. Any person, natural or juridical, 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 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 as completely and to the same extent as if the franchise had been originally granted to such person. acd

SECTION 12. This franchise shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by the Congress of the Philippines when the public interest so requires, and shall not be interpreted as an exclusive grant of privileges herein provided for.

SECTION 13. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 18, 1966

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 64, No. 47, p. 12013 on November 18, 1968