Grant of Temporary Permit to Maria Cristina Chemical Industries, Inc. (Radio Stations)

June 16, 1953

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 874

AN ACT GRANTING TO THE MARIA CRISTINA CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, INC., A TEMPORARY PERMIT TO CONSTRUCT, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE PRIVATE FIXED POINT-TO-POINT, PRIVATE COASTAL AND PRIVATE LAND BASE RADIO STATIONS FOR THE RECEPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WITHIN THE PHILIPPINES

SECTION 1. There is hereby granted to the Maria Cristina Chemical Industries, Inc., its successors or assigns, a temporary permit to construct, maintain and operate in the Philippines, at the following places, to wit: Main Office, City of Manila; Bayambang, Province of Pangasinan; Buenavista, Province of Quezon; Camp Overton, Mindanao Island; watercraft managed by the Maria Cristina Chemical Industries, Inc., and at such places as the said company may select, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, private fixed point-to-point, and private coastal and private land base radio stations for the reception and transmission of wireless messages on radiotelegraphy or radiotelephony, 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 such private fixed point-to-point, private coastal and private land base radio stations or any of them on land of the public domain 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 grantee, its successors or assigns, and is granted upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless the construction of said station be begun within two years from the date approval of this Act and be completed within four years from said date.

SECTION 4. The grantee, its successors or assigns, shall not engage in domestic business of telecommunications in the Philippines, it being understood that the purpose of this temporary permit is to secure to the grantee, its successors or assigns, the right to construct, maintain and operate private fixed point-to-point, private coastal and private land base radio stations in such places in the Philippines as the interest of the company and 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, its successors or assigns, 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 frequency distress frequency of eight thousand two hundred and 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 company'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 radio stations maintained and operated in the Philippines.

SECTION 8. The grantee, its successors or assigns, 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, whether to property or to persons, caused by the constructions or operation of its radio stations.

SECTION 9. The grantee, its successors or assigns, shall be subject to the corporation laws of the Philippines now existing or which may hereafter be enacted.

SECTION 10. 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 stations or to authorize the temporary use or possession thereof by any department of the Government, upon just compensation. casia

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 privilege herein provided for.

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

Approved: June 16, 1953

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 49, No. 6, p. 2158 in June 1953