Section 1. For the purpose of undertaking the development of hydraulic power
and the production of power from other sources and for other purposes
specified in this Act, there is hereby created a public corporation
which shall be known as the "National Power Corporation." The words
"Corporation" and "Board" appearing in this Act shall respectively
refer to the National Power Corporation and the National Power Board,
hereinafter provided.
Section 2. The powers, functions, rights and
activities of the said corporation shall be the following:
(a) To have continuous succession under its corporate
name until otherwise provided by law;
(b) To prescribe its by-laws;
(c) To adopt and use a seal and alter it at its
pleasure;
(d) To sue and be sued in any court;
(e) To conduct investigations and surveys for the
development of water power in any part of the Philippines;
(f) To take water from any public stream, river,
creek, lake spring or waterfall in the Philippines, for the purposes
specified in this Act; to intercept and divert the flow of waters from
lands of riparian owners and from persons owning or interested in
waters which are or may be necessary for said purposes, upon payment of
due compensation therefor; to alter, straighten, obstruct or increase
the flow of water in streams or water channels intersecting or
connecting therewith or contiguous to its works or any part thereof;
(g) To construct, operate and maintain power plants,
auxiliary plants, dams, reservoirs, pipes, mains, transmission lines,
power stations and substations, and other works for the purpose of
developing hydraulic power from any river, creek, lake, spring and
waterfall in the Philippines and supplying such power to the
inhabitants thereof; to acquire, construct, install, maintain, operate
and improve gas, oil, or steam engines, and/or other prime movers,
generators and other machinery in plants and/or auxiliary plants for
the production of electric power; to establish, develop, operate,
maintain and administer power and lighting system for the use of the
Government and the general public; to sell electric power and to fix
the rates and provide for the collection of the charges for any service
rendered: Provided, That the rates of charges shall not be subject to
revision by the Public Service Commission;
(h) To acquire, promote, hold, transfer, sell, lease,
rent, mortgage, encumber and otherwise dispose of anything incident to,
or necessary, convenient or proper to carry out the purposes for which
the corporation was created;
(i) To construct works across, or otherwise, any
stream, watercourse, canal, ditch, flume, street, avenue, highway or
railway of private and public ownership, as the location of said works
may require: Provided, That said works be constructed in such a manner
as not to endanger life or property: And provided, further, That the
stream, watercourse, canal, ditch, flume, street, avenue, highway or
railway so crossed or intersected be restored as near as may be to
their former state, or in a manner not to impair unnecessarily their
usefulness. Every person or entity whose right-of-way is crossed or
intersected by said works shall not obstruct any such crossings or
intersections and shall grant the Board or its representative, the
proper authority for the execution of such work. The Corporation is
hereby given the right-of-way to locate, construct and maintain such
works over and throughout the lands owned by the Commonwealth of the
Philippines or any of its branches and political subdivisions. The
Corporation or its representative may also enter upon private property
in the lawful performance or prosecution of its business and purposes:
Provided, That the owner of such private property shall be indemnified
for any actual damage caused thereby;
(j) To exercise the right of eminent domain for the
purposes of this Act in the manner provided by law for instituting
condemnation proceedings by the national, provincial, and municipal
governments;
(k) When essential to the roper administration of its
corporate affairs or necessary for the proper transaction of its
business or to carry out the purposes for which it was organized, to
contract indebtedness and issue bonds subject to the approval of the
President of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the Secretary
of Finance. The bonded indebtedness of the Corporation, of all classes,
shall not at any time exceed twenty million pesos and the issue thereof
shall be subject to the conditions set forth in section four of this
Act; and
(l) To exercise such powers and do such things as may
be reasonably necessary to carry out the business and purposes for
which it was organized, or which, from time to time, may be declared by
the Board to be necessary, useful, incidental or auxiliary to
accomplish the said purposes.
Section 3. All corporate powers of the National Power
Corporation shall be vested in a board to be known as the National
Power Board, composed of five members who shall all be appointed by the
President of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission of
Appointments of the National Assembly. The members of the Board shall
hold office for a term of three years.
The Board shall immediately organized by electing a chairman from among
its members and by adopting its rules of procedure and fixing the time
and place for holding regular meetings.
The members of said Board who are not in the employ of the Government
of the Commonwealth of the Philippines shall receive a per diem of not
to exceed twenty-five pesos for each day of meeting of the Board
actually attended by them.
It shall appoint its secretary and fix his salary which shall not
exceed four thousand pesos per annum.
The Board shall render reports to the President of the Philippines and
the National Assembly as provided in section five hundred and
seventy-four to five hundred and seventy-seven, inclusive, of act
Numbered Twenty-seven hundred and eleven.
Section 4. Whenever the Board may deem it necessary
for the Corporation to incur indebtedness or to issue bonds to carry
out the purposes for which the Corporation has been organized, it
shall, by resolution, so declare and state the purpose for which the
proposed debt is to be incurred and the conditions of the bonds. In
order that such resolution is valid, it shall be passed by the
affirmative vote of at least three members of the Board and approved by
the President of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the
Secretary of Finance.
The bonds shall be issued under the following conditions: (a) they
shall be in registered form and transferable at the Office of the
Treasurer of the Philippine in Manila or at the Registry Office of the
Department of the Treasury of the United States at Washington, District
of Columbia; (b) they shall not be sold at less than par; (c) they
shall be payable thirty years after the date of issue but may be
redeemable at the pleasure of the Board, after ten years from the date
of issue; (d) they shall bear interest at an annual rate to be
determined before their issuance by the Secretary of Finance; (e) the
interest may be determined by the Secretary of Finance before the
issuance of the bonds; and (f) both principal and interest shall be
payable in gold coin or its equivalent, in the discretion of the
Secretary of Finance, in Manila, if the bonds are sold in the
Philippines or in the United Treasury if they are sold in the United
States.
The bonds issued under the authority of this Act shall be exempt from
the payment of all taxes by the Commonwealth of the Philippines, or by
any authority, branch, division or political subdivision thereof and
subject to the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved March 24,
1934, otherwise known as the Tydings-McDuffie Law, which facts shall be
stated upon the face of said bonds. Said bonds shall be receivable as
security in any transaction with the Government in which such security
is required.
A sinking funds shall be created, the total whereof at each annual due
date of the bonds shall be equal to the total of an annuity of nineteen
thousand three hundred seventy-one pesos and thirty-three centavos for
each one million pesos of bonds outstanding, with interest at the rate
of three and one-half per centum per annum. The sinking funds
shall be under the custody of the Treasurer of the Philippines, who
shall invest the same subject to the approval of the Board and the
Secretary of Finance.
The Commonwealth of the Philippines hereby guarantees the payment of
the National Power Corporation of both the principal and the interest
of the bonds issued by said Corporation by virtue of this Act, and
shall pay such principal and interest in case the National Power
Corporation fails to do so, and there are hereby appropriated, out of
the general funds in the Philippine Treasury not otherwise
appropriated, the sums necessary to make the payments guaranteed by
this Act: Provided, That the sums so paid by the Commonwealth of the
Philippines shall be refunded by the National Power Corporation.
Section 5. The affairs and current business of the
Corporation shall be conducted, and its rights and property shall be
kept and preserved, under the direction of the National Power Board, by
the Manager, Assistant Manager. Treasurer and such additional officers
and employees as the said Board may provide. The Auditor General shall
be ex-officio Auditor of the Corporation.
The duties and powers as well as the compensation of the said officers
and employees shall be such as may be defined and prescribed or fixed
by the National Power Board: Provided, That no additional compensation
shall be given to any officer or employee of the Commonwealth or any of
its political subdivisions or of any public or semi-public corporation,
who may be designated to perform additional duties in the
Corporation.
The Manger, Assistant Manager and Treasurer shall be appointed by the
President of the Philippines, with the consent of the Commission on
Appointments of the National Assembly.
Section 6. Upon determination by the Manager that the
construction of any waterpower project by the Corporation is advisable,
he shall submit a report on the engineering and economic feasibility of
the project together with preliminary plans and estimates of the cost
of the proposed development and the estimated income to be derived
therefrom.
The National Power Board may thereupon at its discretion, designate a
consulting board composed of two competent and impartial engineers and
one competent economist to pass upon the different aspects, of the
project and comment on the report of the Manager. The Board shall, with
the said report and comment in view, decide whether or not the project
shall be constructed, and what changes if any shall be made in the
scheme proposed by the Manager. The decision of the Board shall be
final.
Section 7. All work of construction or repair of the
Corporation involving an estimated cost of three thousand pesos or more
shall be let by the Manager, with the approval of the National Power
Board, to the responsible bidder who made the lowest and most
advantageous bid. Notice to bidders shall be published in the Official
Gazette as provided by law. In case no satisfactory bid is received,
the Manager may proceed to advertise anew, or with the approval of the
Board, proceed to do the work by administration. Before award of
contract is made, the Manager shall require the contractor to give an
adequate bond to secure the proper accomplishment of the work under
contract and to satisfy all obligations for materials used and labor
employed upon the same: Provided, That any repair, reconstruction or
other work of an emergency nature may be authorized by the Board to be
undertaken by administration or by contract.
Section 8. Any person or persons who shall willfully
or maliciously destroy, injure or interfere with any canal, raceway,
ditch, lock, pier, inlet, crib, bulkhead, dam, gate, sluice, reservoir,
aqueduct, conduit, pipe, culvert, post, abutment, conductor,
cable-wire, insulator, weir, benchmark, monument, or other work,
appliance, machinery, building or property of the Corporation, or who
shall willfully or maliciously do any act which shall injuriously
affect the quantity of the water or electrical energy of the
Corporation or the supply, transmission, measurement or regulation
thereof, or who shall maliciously interfere with any person engaged in
the discharge of duties connected therewith, shall be guilty of a
felony and punished with a fine not to exceed five thousand pesos or
with imprisonment for a term not to exceed two years, or both such fine
and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court, and any injured party
shall have the right to recover all damages suffered and cost of suit
in a separate civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Section 9. Subject to all existing rights, all
un-appropriated public waters which may be used and developed for
waterpower purposes shall be, and hereby are, reserved from
appropriation by any person, firm or corporation under any general or
special law relating to the appropriation of public waters, for the use
of the National Power Corporation created by this Act: Provided,
however, That the President, upon the recommendation of the Secretary
of Public Works and Communications, concurred in by the National Power
Board, may, from time to time, release from this reservation any
un-appropriated public waters which may not be necessary for the use of
the National Power Corporation.
Section 10. At any time that the Board certifies that the Corporation is
able to furnish electric power for lighting and other purposes to any
office, shop, or establishment operated and/or owned or controlled by
the National Government or by any city, province, municipality or other
political subdivision of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the
National Government and the government of said city, province,
municipality or other political subdivision shall be compelled to
secure from the Corporation as soon as practicable such electric power
as it may need for lighting and the operation of its offices, shops or
establishments or for any work undertaken by it.
The provisions of this section shall also apply to firms or business
owned or controlled by the National Government or by the government of
any city, province, municipality or other political subdivision.
Section 11. There is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the
Philippine Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of two hundred
and fifty thousand pesos, for the purpose of organizing the Corporation
and conducting the preliminary work: Provided, That the said amount
shall be reimbursed to the Philippine Treasury upon the certification
of the Auditor General that the Corporation is in a financial condition
to do so, and by virtue of such certification, the National Power Board
shall approve a resolution authorizing the Treasury of the Corporation
to make the necessary payment.
As soon as the construction of any project is decided upon, the
Corporation may issue bonds for financing the project in accordance
with the provisions of section four of this Act.
Section 12. This Act shall take effect upon its
approval.
Approved: November 3, 1936.
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