Case Digest: RADIO COMMUNICATIONS OF THE PHILIPPINES, INC., et al. vs. NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION and PHILIPPINE LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE COMPANY

G.R. No. L-66683 23 April 1990

FACTS:

On January 4, 1984, private respondent PLDT filed an application with respondent Commission for the Approval of Rates for Digital Transmission Service Facilities. The NTC and the Public Service Commission granted the same provisionally for 30 days.

ISSUE: 

Whether or not the NTC and the Public Service Commission can grant provisional rates without informing herein petitioners.

RULING:

Yes. Well-settled is the rule that the Public Service Commission now is empowered to approve provisionally rates of utilities without the necessity of a prior hearing. Under the Public Service Act, as amended (CA No. 146), the Board of Communications then, now the NTC, can fix a provisional amount for the subscriber's investment to be effective immediately, without hearing (par. 3 of Sec. 16, CA 146, as amended). Further, the Public Service Act makes no distinction between initial or revised rates. These rates are necessarily proposed merely, until the Commission approves them. Moreover, the Commission can hear and approve revised rates without published notices or hearing. The reason is easily discerned from the fact that provisional rates are by their nature temporary and subject to adjustment in conformity with the definitive rates approved after final hearing