Republic Act No. 4480

Subject to the provisions of the Constitution as well as Act Numbered Three thousand 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"; 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 not inconsistent with this Act, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines is hereby granted a franchise to construct, maintain and operate for non-commercial, religious, educational and cultural purposes and in the public interest, radio broadcasting and television stations in the Philippines except Manila and suburbs with such corresponding base and land mobile stations and fixed point-to-point radiotelephone stations as shall provide efficient and satisfactory broadcast operations of these stations.

This franchise shall continue for a period of twenty-five years from the date of the said stations shall be put into operation, and is likewise granted upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless construction of at least one station be begun within one year from the date of approval of this Act and be completed within two years from the said date.

This franchise is made upon the express condition that the grantee shall provide adequate public service time to enable the Government, through its stations, to reach the population on important issues, shall assist in the function of public information and education, shall conform to the ethics of honest enterprise, and shall not use its station for the dissemination of deliberately false information or willful misrepresentation, or to the detriment of the public health and/or to incite, encourage or assist in subversive or treasonable acts.

The grantee's radio broadcasting and television stations shall not be put into actual operation until the Secretary of Public Works and Communications shall have allotted to the grantee the frequencies and wave lengths to be used under this franchise and issued to the grantee license for such use.

A special right is reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, rebellion, public peril, calamity, emergency, disaster or disturbance of peace and order, to take over and operate the said stations or to authorize the temporary use and operation thereof by any department of the Government upon the due compensation during the period when they shall be operated.

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

In the event of any other individual, partnership or corporation receiving from the Congress a similar franchise 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 part of the terms hereof and shall operate equally in favor of the grantee as in the case of said individual, partnership or corporation.

The franchise hereby granted shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal by the Congress of the Philippines when the public interest requires.

The grantee shall file a bond in the amount of five thousand pesos to guarantee the full compliance with and fulfillment of the conditions under which this franchise is granted. If after two years from the date of acceptance of this franchise, the grantee shall have fulfilled the same, the bond aforesaid shall be canceled by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications.

The grantee shall be liable to pay the same taxes, unless exempted therefrom on its real estate, building, and personal property exclusive of the franchise, as other persons or corporations are now or hereafter may be required by law to pay.

This act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 19. 1965