Republic Act No. 4161

Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and the provisions of Act Numbered Three thousand 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 Three thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, known as the Radio Broadcasting Law; Commonwealth Act Numbered One hundred forty-six, known as the Public Service Act, and their amendments, and other applicable laws, there is hereby granted to the Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corporation hereinafter referred to as the "grantee" a franchise to establish, install, operate and maintain in the Philippines, at such places as the said grantee may select, telecommunications (radio, telegraph and telephone) systems, lines, circuits and/or stations, wire and/or wireless, for international and domestic public communications with the authority to receive and transmit messages, impressions, pictures, music, entertainment, advertising and signals throughout the Philippines and between the Philippines and foreign countries, including ships at sea, airplanes and other conveyances, by means of electricity, electromagnetic waves or any other kind of energy, force, variations or impulses whether conveyed by wires, radiated through space or transmitted through any other medium, to supply facilities for such purposes and to charge and receive compensation therefor by tolls and charges.

Subject to the limitations and procedure prescribed by law, the grantee is authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain, insofar as may be reasonably necessary to further the establishment and efficient maintenance and operation of its telecommunications systems, lines, circuits and/or stations and connecting them to one another. The grantee is authorized to construct and maintain its works of public utility and service over and across public property of the Philippines, including streets, highways, squares and reservations, and other similar property of the Government of the Philippines and its branches.

This franchise shall continue for a period of twenty-five years from the date the said telecommunications systems, lines, circuit and/or stations shall be put in operations, and is made upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless at least one international circuit and/or station or one domestic telecommunication system, circuit and/or station be begun within two years from the date of the approval of this Act and be completed within four years from said date.

A special right is hereby reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, rebellion, public peril or other national emergency and when public safety requires, to cause the closing of the grantee's circuits and/or stations or to authorize the use of possession thereof by any department of the Government without compensation to the grantee for the use of said stations during the continuance of the national emergency.

The operation and activities of the telecommunications systems, lines, circuits and/or stations of the grantee shall contribute to the public welfare; shall conform to the ethics of honest enterprise; shall assist in the functions of public information and education; and shall not be used for the dissemination of deliberately false information, or willful misrepresentation, or to the detriment of the public health, or to incite, encourage or assist in subversive or treasonable acts.

The right is hereby reserved to the Government of the Philippines, through the Public Service Commission, or such other office as may be hereunto duly authorized, to fix the minimum and maximum rates to be charged by the grantee.

The franchise hereby granted shall be subject to amendment, alteration or repeal by the Congress of the Philippines, and the right to use and occupy public property and places hereby granted shall revert to the respective governments, upon the termination of this franchise, by such repeal or by forfeiture, or expiration in due course. Unless earlier terminated by any such repeal or forfeiture, or extended, the franchise and rights hereby granted shall terminate by expiration of twenty-five years after the date of the acceptance of this Act by the grantee.

As a condition of the granting of this franchise, the grantee shall execute a bond in favor of the Government of the Philippines, in the sum of fifty thousand pesos in form and with sureties satisfactory to the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, conditioned upon the faithful performance of the grantee's obligations hereunder during the first three years of the life of this franchise. If, after three years from the date of the acceptance of this franchise, the grantee shall fulfilled said obligations or soon thereafter as the grantee shall have fulfilled the same the bond aforesaid shall be canceled by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications.

Acceptance of the franchise shall be given in writing within one year approval of this Act. When so accepted by the grantee and upon the approval of the bond aforesaid by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications the grantee shall be empowered to exercise the privileges granted thereby.

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, 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 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, firm company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity to which this franchise is sold, transferred or assigned shall be subject to all the conditions, terms, restrictions and limitations of this franchise as fully and completely and to the same extent as if the franchise had been granted to the said person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity.

This franchise shall not be interpreted to mean an exclusive grant of the privileges herein provided for.

This Act shall take effect upon its approval.