1. Requisites and Limitations on Franchises

Requisites for Valid Ratification: (C-P-R)

• Held in a Plebiscite conducted under the election law.
• Supervised by the COMELEC.
• Where only franchised (Registered) voters take part.

Radio Censorship

In Santiago v. Far Eastern Broadcasting, the case hinges on whether the petitioner has a clear legal right to broadcast any speech over one of the radio stations owned and operated by the respondent without first submitting the manuscript, and whether there is a corresponding duty devolved by law upon the respondent to permit the petitioner to do so. Applying the law then in force, the Court ruled that it is not the duty of the respondent as a public service corporation to broadcast speeches without requiring the submission of the manuscript thereof in advance, but that, on the contrary, the laws and regulations expressly authorize the respondent to make such requirement. Santiago describes the law applied in 1941, not a blanket present-day authority for advance censorship of broadcasts. Any current manuscript-submission requirement must be assessed under the freedom-of-speech protection of Article III, Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution and the doctrine on prior restraint.

• Section 2 of Act No. 3180, which is the franchise of the respondent corporation, provides that the broadcasting service shall be open to the general public subject to the general regulations of the grantee for the allotment of time and the class of communications acceptable for broadcasting.
• Commonwealth Act No. 98, where the Secretary of the Interior "shall examine all programs, sustaining or sponsored, of all broadcasting stations," with the power "to eliminate or cancel from the program such number or parts thereof as in his opinion are neither moral, educational nor entertaining, and prejudicial to public interest."
• Department Order No. 13, which requires all broadcasting stations to submit daily to the Secretary of the Interior at least twentyfour hours in advance of the actual broadcasting hour, two copies of all programs to be broadcasted by the stations. Further, it is provided that if a program contains any speeches, ... copies of these or a gist thereof, may be required by the Secretary of the Interior to be submitted together with the program. (Santiago v. Far Eastern Broadcasting, G.R. No. L-48683, Nov. 8, 1941)