WHEREAS, telephone service is a crucial element in the conduct of business activity, the availability of which on a regular and uninterrupted basis is essential for the smooth and efficient functioning of industry;
WHEREAS, efficient telephone service contribute directly to national development by facilitating trade and commerce;
WHEREAS, the telephone industry is one of the most highly capital intensive industries;
WHEREAS, the telephone industry has fundamentally different financing characteristics from other utilities in that capital requirements per telephone unit installed increase as the number of customers serviced also increases instead of decreasing in cost per unit as in power and water utilities;
WHEREAS, continued reliance on the traditional sources of capital funds through foreign and domestic borrowing and through public ownership of common capital stock will result in a high cost of capital, heavy cash requirements for amortization and thus eventually in higher effective cost of telephone service to subscribers;
WHEREAS, the subscribers to telephone service tend to be among the residents of urban areas and among the relatively higher income segment of the population;
WHEREAS, it is in the interest of the national economy to encourage savings and to place these savings in productive enterprises; and
WHEREAS, it is the announced policy of the Government to encourage the spreading out of ownership in public utilities;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, as amended, do hereby decree and adopt, as part of the law of the land the following:
SECTION 1. It is declared that in the interest of the social, economic and general well-being of the people, the State hereby adopts the following basic policies of the telephone industry:
SEC. 2. The Department of Public Works, Transportation and Communications through its Board of Communications and/or appropriate agency shall see to it that the herein declared policies for the telephone industry are immediately implemented and for this purpose pertinent rules and regulations may be promulgated.
SEC. 3. The pertinent provisions of the Public Service Act, as amended, the franchise of the Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Company under Act 3436, as amended, all existing legislative and/or municipal franchises and other laws, executive orders, proclamations, rules and regulations or parts thereof, as are in conflict with the provisions of this Decree are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.
SEC. 4. This Decree shall take effect immediately.
Done in the City of Manila, this 16th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-three.
(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President
Republic of the Philippines
By the President: (Sgd.) ROBERTO V. REYES Assistant Executive Secretary