Grant of Temporary Permit to Bolinao Electronics Corporation (International Telecommunication and Television Stations)

June 14, 1950

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 511

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. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, the Bolinao Electronics Corporation is hereby granted a temporary permit, which shall continue in force during the time that the Government has not established similar service at the places selected by the grantee, 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 this temporary permit shall be void unless the construction of at least one international telecommunication station or one television station be begun within two years from the date of approval of this Act and be completed within four years from said date: Provided, further, That the grantee shall provide adequate public service time to enable the Government, through the said television stations, to reach the population on 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 wilful misrepresentation, or to the detriment of the public health, or to incite, encourage or assist in subversive or treasonable acts.

SECTION 2. Such provisions of Act Numbered Thirty-eight hundred and forty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the regulation of radio stations and radio communications in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes"; Act Numbered Thirty-nine hundred and ninety-seven, known as the Radio Broadcasting Law; Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred and forty-six, known as the Public Service Act, and their amendments, as are applicable to radio broadcasting stations shall be applied, as far as practicable, to the international telecommunication stations and television stations referred to in section one.

SECTION 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 temporary permit is granted.

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

SECTION 5. The grantee shall be liable to pay the same taxes on its real estate, buildings and personal property, exclusive of the temporary permit, as other persons or corporations are now or hereafter may be required by law to pay.

SECTION 6. In the event the Government should desire to maintain and operate for itself any or all of the stations herein authorized, the grantee shall turn over such station or stations to the Government with all the serviceable equipment therein, at cost, less reasonable depreciation.

SECTION 7. The grantee shall not require any previous censorship of any speech, play or other matter to be broadcast from its stations; but if any such speech, play or other matter should constitute a violation of the law or infringement of a private right, the grantee shall be free from any liability, civil or criminal, for such speech, play or other matter: Provided, That the grantee, during any broadcast, may cut off from the air the speech, play or other matter being broadcast if the tendency thereof is to propose and/or incite treason, rebellion or sedition, or the language used therein or the theme thereof is indecent or immoral. casia

SECTION 8. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this temporary permit 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 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 the conditions, terms, restrictions and limitations of this temporary permit as fully and completely and to the same extent as if the temporary permit has been originally granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity.

SECTION 9. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 14, 1950

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 46, No. 8, p. 3574 in August 1950