By Azer Parrocha
President Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed a law renewing the franchise of Air Philippines Corp. for another 25 years.
Duterte signed Republic Act No. (RA) 11682 on April 11 but a copy of the law was released to reporters on Tuesday.
RA 11682 allows Air Philippines to secure a new 25-year franchise to “establish, operate and maintain transport services for the carriage of passengers, mail, goods, and property by air, both domestic and international…”
Air transport services include the maintenance and operation of hangers and aircraft service stations and facilities and other services of similar nature which may be necessary, convenient, or useful as an auxiliary to aircraft transportation.
Air Philippines will have the right at its terminal and landing fields, as well as in its aircraft, to construct, operate, and maintain stations or transmitting sets for wireless telegraphy and direction findings, and other radio aids to air navigation, using wavelengths in accordance with the rules and regulations made from time to time by the proper agencies of the government. The wireless communication facilities will be used solely for receiving and transmitting weather forecasts and other matters in connection with its services.
Under PAL Holdings Inc., Air Philippines Corp. operates as PAL Express and is the third-largest airline in the country.
Other laws
Aside from RA 11682, Duterte also signed RA 11694 or the Revised Batangas State University Charter which declares Batangas State University as the national engineering university, and RA 11695 which strengthens the Tarlac State University.
He also inked RA 11683, which amends section 450 of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 as amended by RA 9009 by providing for the requisites for the conversion of a municipality into a component city.
Among others, a municipality or a cluster of barangays may be converted into a component city if it has a locally generated average annual income, as certified by the Department of Finance, of at least PHP100 million for the last two consecutive years based on 2,000 constant prices.
It must also be a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers as certified by the Land Management Bureau and a population of not less than 150,000 inhabitants as certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
He also signed RA 11689 which revises the charter of the city of Baguio and RA 11690 which renames Barangay San Isidro in the municipality of Lupon, province of Davao Oriental as barangay Ernesto D. Violan.
The renaming of Barangay San Isidro as Barangay Ernesto D. Violan will be effective upon ratification of the majority of the votes cast by qualified voters in a plebiscite to be conducted and supervised by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the present Barangay San Isidro, Municipality of Lupon, Province of Davao Oriental in compliance with Section 13(g) of RA 7160.
The expenses for such a plebiscite must be borne by the Municipality of Lupon, Province of Davao Oriental.
Duterte signed RA 11683 on April 10 while RAs 11694, 11695, 11689, and 11690 were signed on April 11. All laws were released to reporters on Tuesday.
