REPUBLIC ACT NO. 5356 - AN ACT GRANTING A FRANCHISE TO THE ASIATIC INTEGRATED CORPORATION TO CONSTRUCT, OPERATE AND MAINTAIN PRIVATE PIERS AND WHARVES IN THE PORT OF MARIVELES.

[ REPUBLIC ACT NO. 5356, June 15, 1968 ]

AN ACT GRANTING A FRANCHISE TO THE ASIATIC INTEGRATED CORPORATION TO CONSTRUCT, OPERATE AND MAINTAIN PRIVATE PIERS AND WHARVES IN THE PORT OF MARIVELES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution and to the terms and conditions imposed under this Act, there is hereby granted to the Asiatic Integrated Corporation, its successors or assigns, a one hundred percent Filipino corporation organized under, and by virtue of, the Corporation Law, hereinafter referred to as the grantee, a franchise for a period of twenty-five years, to construct, operate and maintain, in the Port of Mariveles, Province of Bataan, private piers and wharves for the use of vessels engaged in foreign or coast wise trade. The plans, specifications and construction of any pier, wharf or wharves by the grantee hereunder shall be subject to the approval of the Department of Public Works and Communications.

SEC. 2. Cargoes loaded and unloaded in the grantee's piers and wharves shall be properly inspected and/or examined in accordance with the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines by the Bureau of Customs which shall also collect thereon, if required, the corresponding customs, duties, taxes, fees, wharf age dues and other charges provided in the same code.

SEC. 3. The grantee shall be liable to pay the same taxes on its real property, buildings and personal property, exclusive of this franchise, as other persons or corporations are now or hereafter may be required by law to pay.

SEC. 4. This franchise shall continue to be in force for the period provided for in Section one of this Act and during the time that the Government has not established similar service at the places selected by the grantee. It is likewise granted upon the express condition that the same shall be void unless the construction of at least one wharf or pier be begun within two years from the date of approval of this Act and be completed within four years from said date, unless prevented by fortuitous cause of force majeure martial law, riot, civil commotion, usurpation by a military power or any other reasonable cause beyond the grantee's herein for the construction of grantee's pier or wharf shall be suspended.

SEC. 5. The President of the Philippines, through the proper department of the Government, shall have the power and authority to permit the location of said private piers or wharves of the grantee on any land or water within the jurisdiction of the Port of Mariveles upon such terms as he may prescribe.

SEC. 6. The grantee shall hold the national, provincial, city and municipal governments harmless from all claims, accounts, demands, or actions arising out of accidents or injuries, whether to property or to persons, arising out of the construction, operation and maintenance of its wharves.

SEC. 7. The grantee shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell or assign this franchise, or the rights or privileges acquired thereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation, or other commercial or legal entity, nor merge with any other person, firm, company or corporation; organized for the same purpose, without the prior approval of Congress.

SEC. 8. A special right is hereby reserved to the President of the Philippines in time of war, insurrection, public peril, emergency, calamity or disaster to cause the closing of the grantee's piers or wharves or to authorize the temporary use or possession thereof by any department, bureau, office, agency or instrumentality of the Government upon payment of just compensation.

SEC. 9. In the event of any competing individual, association, or corporation receiving from the Congress of the Philippines similar franchise in which there shall be terms tending to place the herein grantee at any disadvantage, then such terms shall ipso facto become part of the terms of the Act and shall operate in favor of the grantee as in the case of said competing individual, association, or corporation.

SEC. 10. This franchise is granted under the condition that it is non-exclusive and shall be subject to amendment, alteration, or repeal by the Congress when the public interests so requires.

SEC. 11. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, June 15, 1968.