Public Service Act

Sec 18

It shall be unlawful for any individual, partnership, association, corporation or joint-stock company, their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, or any municipality, province, or other department of the Government of the Philippines, to engage in any public service business without having first secured from the Commission a certificate as provided for in this Act, except grantees of legislative franchises expressly exempting such grantee from the requirement of securing a certificate from this Commission, as well as concerned at present existing expressly exempted from the jurisdiction of the Commission, either totally or in part, by the provisions of section thirteen of this Act. (As amended by RA No 11659)

Sec 19

Unlawful acts.—It shall be unlawful for any public service: To provide or maintain any service that is unsafe, improper, or inadequate, or withhold or refuse any service which can reasonably be demanded and furnished, as found and determined by the Commission in a final order which shall be conclusive and shall take effect in accordance with this Act, upon appeal or otherwise. To make or give, directly or indirectly, by itself or through its agents, attorneys or brokers, or any of them, discounts or rebates on authorized rates, or grant credit for the payment of freight charges, or any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any person or corporation or to any locality or to any particular description of traffic or service, or subject any particular person or corporation or locality or any particular description of traffic to any prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever; to adopt, maintain, or enforce any regulation, practice or measurement which shall be found or determined by the Commission to be unjust, unreasonable, unduly preferential or unjustly discriminatory, in a final order which shall be conclusive and shall take effect in accordance with the provisions of this Act, upon appeal or otherwise. To refuse or neglect, when requested by the Postmaster General or his authorized representative, to carry public mail on the regular trips of any public land transportation service maintained or operated by any such public service, upon such terms and conditions and for a consideration in such amounts as may be agreed upon between the Postmaster General and the public service carrier or fixed by the Commission in the absence of an agreement between the Postmaster General and the carrier. In case the Postmaster General and the public service carrier are unable to agree on the amount of the compensation to be paid for the carriage of the mail, the Postmaster General shall forthwith request the Commission to fix a just and reasonable compensation for such carriage and the same shall be promptly fixed by the Commission in accordance with section sixteen of this Act. To refuse or neglect, when requested by the Administrative Agency to urgently use, deliver or render the public service for the purpose of avoiding further loss on human, material, economic, or environment during a state of calamity. (As amended by RA No 11659)

Sec 20

Acts requiring the approval of the Commission.—Subject to established limitations and exceptions and saving provisions to the contrary, it shall be unlawful for any public service or for the owner, lessee or operator thereof, without the approval and authorization of the Commission previously had: To adopt, establish, fix, impose, maintain, or collect or carry into effect any individual or joint rates, commutation, mileage or other special rate, toll, fare,charge, classification or itinerary. The Commission shall approve only those that are prudent and efficient and not any that are unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential, only upon reasonable notice to the public services and other parties concerned . giving them a reasonable opportunity to be heard, and the burden of the proof to show that the proposed rates or regulation are prudent and efficient shall be upon the public service purposing the same. To establish, construct, maintain, or operate new units or extend existing facilities or make any other addition to or general extension of the service: Provided, That only assets that are useful and necessary for the provision of the public service shall form part of the rate base as determined and approved by the Administrative Agency: Provided, further, That construction of such asset and implementation of such project may be allowed for emergency and other extraordinary cases: Provided, finally, That the public service provider files for approval of such extension or construction of facilities within sixty (60) days from implementation of the project, and without prejudice to the final determination by the Administrative Agency if the said asset is useful and necessary for inclusion in the rate base. The Administrative Agency may issue regulations prescribing a shorter period than that provided in the preceding paragraphs only in cases of emergency, as may be certified by such Administrative Agency, requiring the installation, construction or maintenance of units, facilities or equipment. To abandon any railroad station or stop the sale of passenger tickets, or cease to maintain an agent to receive and discharge freight at any station now or hereafter established at which passenger tickets are now or may hereafter be regularly sold, or at which such agent is now or may hereafter be maintained, or make any permanent change in its time tables or itineraries on any railroad or in its service. To lay any railroad or street railway track across any highway, so as to make a new crossing at grade, or cross the tracks of any other railroad or street railway, provided that this subsection shall not apply to replacements of lawfully existing tracks. To issue any share of stock without par value: Provided, That it shall be the duty of the Commission, after hearing, to approve any such time when satisfied that the same is to be made in accordance with law. To capitalize any franchise in excess of the amount, inclusive of any tax or annual charge, actually paid to the Government of the Philippines or any political subdivision thereof as the consideration of said franchise; capitalize any contract for consolidation, merger, or lease, or issue any bonds or other evidence of indebtedness against or as a lien upon any contract for consolidation, merger, or lease; Provided, however, That the provisions of this section shall not prevent the issuance of stock, bonds, or other evidence of indebtedness subject to the approval of the Commission by any lawfully merged or consolidated public services not in contravention of the provisions of this section. To sell, alienate, mortgage, encumber or lease its property, franchises, certificates, privileges, or rights, or any part thereof, or merge or consolidate its property, franchise, privileges or rights, or any part thereof, with those of any other public service. The approval therein required shall be given, after notice to the public and after hearing the persons interested at a public hearing, if it be shown that there are just and reasonable grounds for making the mortgage or encumbrance, for liabilities of more than one year maturity, or the sale, alienation, lease, merger, or consolidation to be approved, and that the same are not detrimental to the public interest, and in case of sale, the date on which the same is to be consummated shall be fixed in the order of approval: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the transaction from being negotiated or completed before its approval or to prevent the sale, alienation, or lease by any public service of any of its property in the ordinary course of its business: Provided, finally, That the need for approval of the sale, alienation, mortgage, encumbrance or lease will be required only for properties of the public service that are used and useful in the delivery of the required public service. To sell or register in its books the transfer or sale of shares of its capital stock, if the result of that sale in itself or in connection with another previous sale, shall be to vest in the transferee more than forty per centum of the subscribed capital of said public service. Any transfer made in violation of this provision shall be void and of no effect and shall not be registered in the books of the public service corporation. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the holding of shares lawfully acquired. (As amended by CA No 454) To sell, alienate or in any matter transfer shares of its capital stock to any alien if the result of that sale, alienation, or transfer in itself or in connection with another previous sale shall be the reduction to less than sixty percent (60%) of the capital stock belonging to Philippine Nationals in the operation of a public utility as required by the Constitution. Such sale, alienation or transfer shall be void and of no effect and shall be sufficient cause for ordering the cancellation of the certificate. To issue, give or tender, directly or indirectly, any free ticket, free pass or free or reduced rate of transportation for passengers, except to the following persons: officers, agents, employees, attorneys, physicians and surgeons of said public service, and members of their families; inmates of hospitals or charity institutions, and persons engaged in charitable work; indigent, destitute, and homeless persons when transported by charitable societies or hospitals, and the necessary agents employed in such transportation; the necessary caretakers, going and returning, of live stock, poultry, fruit, and other freight under uniform and nondiscriminatory regulation; employees of sleeping car corporations, express corporations, and telegraph and telephone corporations; railway and marine mail service employees, when traveling in the course of their official duty; post-office inspectors, customs officers and inspectors, and immigration inspectors when engaged in inspection; witnesses attending any legal investigation in which the public service is an interested party; persons injured in accidents or wrecks, and physicians and nurses attending such persons; peace officers and officers and men of regularly constituted fire departments. (As amended by CA No 454) Adopt, maintain, or apply practices or measures, rules or regulations, to which the public shall be subject in its relations with the public service. (As amended by RA No 11659)