Grant of Temporary Permit to Aras-Asan Timber Co., Inc. (Radio Stations)

June 19, 1959

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 2268

AN ACT GRANTING THE ARAS-ASAN TIMBER COMPANY, INC., A TEMPORARY PERMIT TO CONSTRUCT, ESTABLISH, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE PRIVATE FIXED POINT-TO-POINT AND PRIVATE SHIP-TO-SHORE RADIO STATIONS FOR THE RECEPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WITHIN THE PHILIPPINES

SECTION 1. There is hereby granted to the Aras-asan Timber Company, Inc., its successors or assigns, a temporary permit to construct, maintain and operate in the Philippines, at such places ad the grantee may select, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, private fixed point-to-point and private ship-to-shore radio stations for the reception and transmission of wireless messages on radiotelegraphy and radio-telephony, each station to be provided with a radio transmitting apparatus and a radio receiving apparatus.

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

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

SECTION 4. The grantee, its successors or assigns, shall not engage in domestic business of telecommunications in the Philippines without further special assent of the Congress of the Philippines, it being understood that the purpose of this temporary permit is to secure to the grantee the right to construct, establish, maintain and operate private fixed point-to-point and private ship-to-shore radio stations in such places within the Philippines as the interest of its trade and business may justify.

SECTION 5. This temporary permit 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, its successors or assigns, 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 shall be charged by the grantee 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 its successors or assigns, shall so construct and operate its radio stations as not to interfere with the operation of other stations maintained and operated in the Philippines. cd

SECTION 8. The grantee, its successors or assigns, shall hold the National, provincial, city and municipal governments of the Philippines harmless from all claims, accounts, demands or actions arising out of accidents or injuries whether to property or to 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, calamity or disaster to cause the closing of the grantee's radio station or to authorize the temporary use or possession thereof by any department of the Government upon payment of just compensation.

SECTION 10. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this temporary permit, nor the rights or privileges acquired thereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity, nor merge with any other person, firm, company or corporation organized for the same purpose, without the approval of the Congress of the Philippines first had. Any corporation to which this temporary permit 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 temporary permit is sold, transferred or assigned shall be subject to all conditions, terms restrictions and limitations of this temporary permit as fully and completely and to the same extent as if the temporary permit had been originally granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity.

SECTION 11. This temporary permit 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 the privileges herein provided for.

SECTION 12. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 19, 1959

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 55, No. 30, p. 5752 on July 27, 1959